^ 


THE  HORSE 

His  Breeding,  Care  and  Use 

By  DAVID  BUFFUM 


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THE  HORSE 


THE  HORSE 

HIS   BREEDING,   CARE 
AND  USE 


BY 

DAVID  BUFFUM 

Illustrated  with  Diagrams 


HANDBCDKS 


NEW  YORK 

OUTING  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
MCMXI 


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COPYRIGBT,    1911,   By 

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Entered  at  Stationer's  Hall,  London,  England. 
All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

During  the  greater  part  of  my  life  it  has  fallen 
to  my  lot  to  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  horses; 
in  breeding  them  and  studying  them,  in  raising 
them  and  breaking  them  to  harness,  in  their  care 
and  feeding  and  in  the  cure  of  their  vices,  when 
they  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  them,  a  large 
part  of  my  time  has  been  occupied.  The  knowl- 
edge that  is  gained  in  the  school  of  experience  is 
generally  conceded  to  be  of  the  most  valuable  and 
practical  kind,  and  it  has  occurred  to  me  that 
some  of  the  things  I  have  thus  been  able  to  learn 
may  be  of  much  value  to  others. 

In  handling  "  inquiries  and  answers  "  concern- 
ing equine  matters  for  a  great  American  period- 
ical, I  have  often  been  surprised  to  see,  in  the  let- 
ters that  have  come  to  me  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  from  people  of  widely  varying  means 
and  conditions,  how  similar  they  are  in  kind.  Al- 
most invariably  the  inquiries  concern  such  prac- 
tical matters  as  how  to  feed  and  stable,  how  to 
breed  so  as  to  produce  a  good  horse  for  the  pur- 
pose intended,  how  to  break  to  harness,  and  what 
to  do  to  cure  such  vices  as  running  away,  shying, 
kicking,  or  balking.     It  has   seemed  to  me  that 


PREFACE  6 

these  inquiries  point  out  a  well-defined  want  and 
it  is  concerning  these  practical  matters — matters 
in  which  every  horse-owner  is  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  want  help — that  this  book  is  chiefly 
written. 

Perhaps,  too,  in  writing  the  book,  I  have  been 
influenced,  in  some  degree,  by  another  and  more 
sentimental  reason — which  is  none  other  than  my 
love  for  the  horse  and  a  desire  to  promote  horse- 
manship in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  For  in  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  my  life  I  have  found  the  horse 
one  of  its  greatest  blessings,  an  added  joy  in  times 
of  prosperity  and  happiness  and  a  comfort  and 
solace  in  days  of  disappointment  and  sorrow. 
Surely  such  an  animal  deserves  that  comprehen- 
sion of  what  he  really  is,  that  insight  into  his 
nature,  and  that  knowledge  of  what  to  expect  of 
him  and  how  to  manage  him  and  care  for  him  and 
bring  out  the  best  that  is  in  him  that  constitute 
true  horsemanship. 

David  Buffum. 

Prudence  Island,  R,  L 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  What  Constitutes  a  Good  Horse  11 

II.  Our  Debt  to  the  Arab      ...  25 

III.  Choice    of    a    Breed    and    Prin- 
ciples   IN    Breeding        ...  38 

IV.  Cure   of  Vices 50 

V.  Spiying 67 

VI.  Stabling  and  Feeding       ...  79 

VII.  The  Colt's  Kindergarten  Train- 
ing         85 

VIII.  The   Education   of   the   Colt      .  93 

IX.  When  the  Horse  is  Sick    .      .      .  106 

X.  Shoeing 119 

XT.  Carriage   Horses 125 

XII.  Draft  Horses 137 

XIII.  The     Evolution     of     the     Two- 

IMiNUTE  Trotter       .        ...  149 


It  is  upon  horses  that  gods  and  heroes  are 
painted  riding:  and  men  who  are  able  to  manage 
them  skilfully  are  regarded  as  deserving  of  admi- 
ration. So  extremely  beautiful  and  admirable 
and  noble  a  sight  is  a  horse  that  bears  himself 
superbly  that  he  fixes  the  gaze  of  all  who  see 
him,  both  young  and  old:  no  one,  indeed,  leaves 
him  or  is  tired  of  contemplating  him  as  long  as  he 
continues  to  display  his  magnificent  attitudes. 

— Xenophon. 


CHAPTER    I 

WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  GOOD   HORSE 

THE  horse,  of  all  our  domestic  animals,  has 
always  held  the  most  conspicuous  place. 
It  is  easy  to  say  that  he  is  more  showy,  but 
less  useful  than  the  cow  or  sheep  and  that  he  has 
carried  many  men  into  trouble  as  well  as  out  of  it, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  he  has  been  celebrated 
in  romance  and  poetry  and  song,  from  the  days 
when  he  was  admired  by  Solomon  and  when  Job 
wrote  his  splendid  panegyric  on  the  war-horse, 
down  to  the  present  time. 

Is  he  justly  entitled  to  the  place  of  honor  he 
has  thus  held,  and  still  holds,  in  the  world?  And 
is  he  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  best  intellects 
and  the  lifetimes  of  study  that,  from  time  to  time, 
have  been  bestowed  upon  his  breeding,  care,  and 
management?  Be  assured  that  he  is.  No  man 
need  ever  feel  that  he  is  misapplying  his  best 
powers  in  studying  and  improving  any  of  the  ani- 
mals that  Nature  has  given  for  his  use.  And  if 
men  have   sometimes   got   into   trouble   through 

11 


1^  THE   HORSE 

horses,  the  same  might  be  said  of  ahnost  any 
other  thing — and,  clearly,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the 
horse. 

POINTS   OF   THE   HORSE 

The  first  thing  to  learn  in  the  science  of  horse- 
manship— the  very  A  B  C  of  the  matter,  as  it 
were — is  the  points  of  a  good  horse.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  a  great  many  of  my  readers  already 
know  them  and  equally  no  doubt  that  a  great 
many  have  gone  far  beyond  this  initial  chapter. 
But  many  times  in  my  life  I  have  been  surprised  to 
find  men  of  mature  years  who  had  always  used 
horses  and  even  raised  a  few  colts  who  were  not 
as  well  up  on  the  matter  as  one  might  suppose; 
and  I  have  met  many  young  men  who  aspired  to 
be  horsemen  without  having  acquired  that  essen- 
tial knowledge  of  the  subject  that  is  better  learned 
by  a  little  earnest  study  in  the  first  place  than  by 
painful  and  costly  experience  later. 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  most  important  parts 
of  a  horse  and  the  first  to  examine  are  his  feet  and 
legs.  For  if  he  is  deficient  in  this  respect,  no  su- 
periority in  other  points  and  no  qualities  in  breed- 
ing or  disposition  can  offset  it.  The  best  chair 
or  table  in  the  world  is  useless  if  it  has  only  three 
or  two  legs ;  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Arab  proverb, 
"  No  foot,  no  horse,"  is  apparent. 


A    GOOD    HORSE 


13 


For  these  points,  the  feet  of  the  horse  should 
be  symmetrical,  neither  too  deep  nor  too  flat,  but, 
if  failing  in  either  respect,  they  had  better  be  too 
deep  than  too  flat.  It  may  often  happen  that,  on 
soft  and  level  country  roads,  a  flat  foot  may  not 
occasion  much  trouble,  but  it  is  bad  on  hard  roads 


POORLY  DfVLLOPED 
_HlNpQlWRTtR 


Bad  Points  to  Look  Out  for  in  a  Horse 

or  in  cities  and  is,  in  all  cases,  a  defect  in  con- 
formation. 

The  limbs  should  be  clean — that  is,  free  from 
fleshiness — but  with  plenty  of  bone  and  substance. 
The  fore  legs  should  be,  relatively,  short  from 
the  fetlock  joint  to  the  knee  and  long  from  the 


14  THE    HORSE 

knee  to  the  horse's  body.  This  is  a  very  im- 
portant point,  as  no  horse  was  ever  good  for  much 
on  the  road  whose  knees  were  too  high  up. 

The  hind  legs  should  be  flat,  as  well  as  clean. 
There  is  an  old  saying  that  they  should  look  as  if 
the  skin  had  been  removed,  the  bone  scraped  and 
the  skin  put  back  again.  This  excessive  cleanness 
goes  with  highly-bred  horses  and  is  to  be  insisted 
on  in  all  horses  that  properly  belong  in  that  class, 
such  as  thoroughbreds,  trotters,  hackne3'S,  etc. 
In  colder-blooded  horses  we  should  demand  at 
least  a  reasonable  approach  to  it;  as  much,  we 
may  say,  as  the  breed  admits  of.  The  gambrel 
joint  should  be  strong  and  well  developed,  never 
slender  or  "  dandified,"  and  it  is  also  desirable  to 
have  it,  relatively,  near  the  ground,  though  this 
is  not  as  important  as  the  position  of  the  fore 
knee. 

The  horse  should  stand  square  on  his  legs  with 
his  feet  well  under  him,  and  his  hoofs  should  be 
straight  fore  and  aft,  neither  toeing  in  nor  toeing 
out. 

For  the  body  of  the  horse,  the  back  should  be 
short. 

The  hind  quarters  should  be  well  developed, 
with  the  hip-joints  fairly  well  forward.  The 
rump  should  be,  not  straight,  but  rather  straight 
than  drooping.     That  is,  the  line  from  the  top  of 


A    GOOD    HORSE 


15 


the  hips  to  the  root  of  the  tail  should  be  only 
moderately  oblique.  I  am  by  no  means  certain 
that  the  straightness  or  obliquity  of  this  line 
really  makes  much  difference  to  the  value  of  the 
horse ;  in  hundreds  that  I  have  examined  and  seen 


SMAlLCLtANHt* 

FLAT  FOREHEAD/,  ^^ 


WflL  CEVf lOPEO  «D 

SYMMF'RICAL 
HIND  QUARTERS 


KNt£  NtAn  THl  (WOUND 


GQc«rktT. 


Physical  Virtues  of  a  Good  Horse 

put  to  severe  road  and  other  work  I  could  never 
perceive  that  it  did.  But  the  moderately  oblique 
line  is  far  more  elegant  and  it  is  one  of  the  points 
of  equine  perfection,  and,  as  such,  should  always 
have  due  consideration. 

The  shoulders  should  be  slanting,  not  upright. 


16  THE   HORSE 

and  the  withers  reasonably  high.  This  conforma- 
tion makes  a  strong  as  well  as  an  elegant 
shoulder. 

The  body  should  be  nicely  rounded,  neither 
gaunt  nor  "  pot-bellied,"  and  should  be  ribbed 
well  up  toward  the  hips. 

The  chest  should  be  deep,  rather  than  wide,  giv- 
ing large  lung  capacity. 

The  neck  should  be  free  from  undue  fleshiness. 
It  may  be  either  long  or  short,  as  far  as  utility  is 
concerned,  the  long,  of  course,  being  much  more 
elegant  and  therefore  to  be  preferred  on  well-bred 
horses.  In  either  case  it  should  be  bent  a  little 
just  before  the  point  where  it  joins  the  head  so  as 
to  give  the  conformation  that  we  call  "  clean  cut 
in  the  throttle,"  a  structure  that  gives  the  breath- 
ing apparatus  free  play. 

The  head  in  well-bred  horses  should  be  small 
and  almost  as  clean  and  bony  as  the  limbs.  The 
face  line,  viewed  from  the  side,  should  be  straight, 
not  aquiline  (or,  as  in  the  case  of  many  Arabs,  it 
may  be  slightly  dishing).  The  forehead  should 
be  flat  between  the  eyes.  The  eyes  should  be  of 
medium  size,  set  well  apart  from  each  other  and 
not  too  near  the  top  of  the  head,  and  the  head, 
when  viewed  from  the  front,  should  slant  in  a 
little  from  the  eyes  upward.  The  ears  should  be 
fine,  thin  and  pointed  and  of  medium  length,  and 


A    GOOD    HORSE  17 

they  should  be  so  set  on  that,  when  pointed  for- 
ward, they  are  parallel,  not  slanting  apart. 

A  STANDARD   FOE  ALL  BREEDS 

These  points  of  equine  perfection  are  absolute, 
and  therefore  they  apply  to  all  kinds  of  horses. 
This  statement,  in  view  of  the  strikingly  different 
characteristics  of  different  breeds,  may,  at  first, 
seem  wrong,  but  the  experience  of  a  life-time  with 
horses  of  all  types  has  convinced  me  of  its  truth. 
In  judging  horses  of  different  types,  the  difference 
must  be  in  the  application,  not  in  the  standard  it- 
self;  for  a  good  horse  must  be  homogeneous  in  his 
make-up,  every  part  in  harmony  with  other  parts, 
and  every  part  must  have  such  modification  and 
proportion  as  conduces  to  that  end. 

For  instance,  a  hackney  is  a  very  different 
horse  from  a  thoroughbred  and  if  he  looked  even 
like  the  best  thoroughbred,  he  v/ould  not  be  a  good 
hackney.  But  it  is  just  as  important  that  he 
have  a  good  back,  a  slanting  shoulder,  and  clean 
limbs  and  head  as  in  the  case  of  a  thoroughbred. 
His  neck,  it  is  sometimes  argued,  is  so  different 
that  it  cannot  be  judged  in  the  same  way.  So  it 
is  different,  but  if  it  be  examined  understandingly 
it  will  be  found  to  differ  only  in  such  manner  and 
degree  as  conform  to  his  type  and,  not  one  whit 


18  THE    HORSE 

less  than  in  the  thoroughbred,  it  should  be  free 
from  undue  fleshiness,  clean  and  elegant  in  outline, 
and  so  set  on  as  to  give  a  clean-cut  throttle.  In 
other  words,  as  a  good  point  is  a  good  one  and  a 
bad  point  a  bad  one,  the  same  standard  must  al- 
ways be  used — but  applied  in  such  a  way  as  to 
conform  to  the  modifications  that  always  exist 
in  different  types  and  breeds. 

To  follow  the  subject  a  little  further  (for  it  is 
a  vitally  important  one)  the  plea  for  an  abate- 
ment in  certain  respects  of  the  requirements  for 
equine  perfection  is  most  often  heard  in  connec- 
tion with  draft-horses.  These  animals,  it  is 
urged,  serve  a  different  purpose  from  driving 
stock  and  therefore,  if  they  are  only  large  and 
strong  and  smooth,  a  considerable  departure  from 
the  embodiment  of  the  points  we  have  named  makes 
very  little  difference.  This  has  not  been  my  ex- 
perience. As  a  breeder  for  many  years  of  both 
road  and  draft  stock,  I  have  found  that  the  latter, 
no  less  than  the  former,  brought  the  best  prices 
when,  apart  from  the  distinguishing  marks  of 
their  breed,  they  possessed  the  greatest  number  of 
points  of  general  equine  excellence.  They  were 
handsomer — and  beauty  always  sells. 

As  the  manager  of  large  stables  belonging  to 
the  city  of  New  York,  I  observed  constantly  that 
those  of  our  horses  which  had  the  best  points — 


A    GOOD    HORSE  19 

short  backs,  good  shoulders,  limbs,  and  feet,  and 
well-developed  hind-quarters — stood  up  better 
and  lasted  longer  under  their  work  than  the 
others;  and  this,  too,  was  often  irrespective  of 
size.  But  that  breeders  did  not  realize  this — or, 
what  is  more  likelj,  that  they  often  sacrificed 
points  to  mere  size — was  evident.  For  the  city 
was  willing  to  pay  good  prices  for  its  stock  and 
our  horses  were  selected  with  care,  and  yet  a  large 
percentage  were  too  long  in  the  back  and  too  up- 
right in  the  shoulder;  a  great  many  had  rather 
poor  feet.  With  a  greater  range  in  regard  to 
size  these  defects  could,  to  a  large  extent,  have 
been  avoided,  but  our  work  called  for  heavy  teams 
and  we  rarely  bought  a  horse  weighing  less  than 
sixteen  hundred  pounds. 

It  is  in  the  power  of  man  to  breed  horses  large 
or  small  and  of  either  a  good  or  a  bad  conforma- 
tion. But  he  greatly  errs  who  is  careless  in  the 
latter  respect  or  who  argues  that  good  points  are 
not  always  important,  whatever  the  type.  For 
good  points  were  not  the  invention  of  man,  but 
were  learned  by  him  through  centuries  of  use  and 
study  of  the  horse.  They  are  based  upon  the 
mechanism  of  the  animal  and  were  first  decided 
upon  by  One  whose  judgment  does  not  err  and 
whose  wisdom,  whether  in  matters  of  horseflesh  or 
otherwise,  we  cannot  question. 


W  THE   HORSE 

ORIGIN   OF  THE   HORSE   AND   FORMATION   OF 
DIFFERENT  BREEDS 

In  speaking  of  the  origin  of  the  horse  and  his 
early  development  as  a  domestic  animal,  I  must 
of  necessity  be  brief,  for  the  subject  is  too  large 
to  discuss  at  length.  But  a  few  facts  in  this  con- 
nection have  a  bearing  upon  what  we  can  do  in  the 
modification  of  equine  types  and  so  have  practical 
value  for  the  breeder  too  important  to  go  wholly 
unnoted. 

The  horse  is  believed  to  have  originated  in 
southern  Asia.  His  natural  size  is  not  very  great, 
averaging  about  eight  hundred  pounds,  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  original  type  was 
rather  fine  than  coarse.  All  the  different  breeds 
now  in  vogue,  ranging  in  fineness  from  the  thor- 
oughbred to  the  coarsest  of  the  heavy  types  and 
in  size  from  the  little  Shetland  to  the  great  draft- 
horses,  trace  back  to  this  common  origin  and  are 
simply  modifications  of  it,  wrought  by  environ- 
ment or  the  skill  of  man,  or  both.  This  fact  ex- 
plains the  tendency  of  all  breeds  to  revert  to  the 
natural  and  parent  type.  In  other  words,  all  the 
variations  of  the  original  type  which  we  call 
breeds  have  a  constant  tendency  to  drop  back  to 
where  they  started. 

The  breeder  of  draft-stock,  if  he  becomes  care- 


A    GOOD   HORSE  21 

less  in  either  mating  or  feeding,  will  find  each  gen- 
eration a  trifle  lighter  in  weight ;  while  the  breeder 
of  ponies  (if  in  the  temperate  zone)  will,  unless 
he  use  equal  care,  find  each  generation  a  trifle 
heavier.  In  like  manner,  as  the  run  is  the  natural 
gait  of  the  horse  when  he  is  going  his  fastest,  so 
it  is  difficult  (and,  in  all  probability,  will  prove 
impossible)  to  breed  this  tendency  entirely  out  of 
trotters. 

Let  us  take  a  glance  at  what  has  been  done  by 
Nature  and  what  by  man  in  the  formation  of 
breeds.  Breeds  of  ponies  were  formed  by  Nature 
in  very  hot  or  very  cold  countries,  mainly  the  lat- 
ter, where  the  horse  will  inevitably  deteriorate  in 
size.  Climate  has  also  some  effect  in  other  ways. 
But  by  far  the  greatest  number  of  modifications 
of  the  equine  type — as  the  thoroughbred,  the  trot- 
ter, the  hackney,  and  the  draft  breeds — were 
formed  by  the  skill  of  man  in  selecting,  mating, 
and  feeding. 

Environment,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  wholly  ig- 
nored; the  dweller  in  a  mountainous  country,  for 
instance,  is  not  well  situated  for  raising  heavy 
draft-horses.  But  as  a  factor  in  the  formation 
of  different  breeds  and  in  the  production  of  speed 
I  have  long  felt  that  its  importance  had  been 
greatly  overestimated.  Indeed,  I  have  never 
been  able  to  discover  that  horses  of  most  of  our 


22  THE    HORSE 

types  could  not  be  bred  successfully  in  all  parts 
of  the  temperate  zone  where  farming  or  stock- 
raising  could  be  engaged  in  at  all.  It  is,  of 
course,  easier  to  breed  them  where  the  soil  is  rich 
and  the  pasturage  abundant,  but  these  accessories 
are  not  indispensable.  The  Arabs  have  always 
got  along  w^ithout  them  and  their  success  as  breed- 
ers can  hardly  be  questioned. 

The  development  of  different  breeds  from  the 
original  type  began  almost  with  the  dawn  of  his- 
tory. The  Greeks  made  much  advance  in  the 
science  and  it  is  evident,  if  only  from  the  treatise 
that  has  come  down  to  us  from  Xenophon,  that 
their  breed  was  a  good  one.  The  Roman  horse, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Romans  owed 
what  they  knew  of  horse-breeding — as,  indeed, 
the  knowledge  of  all  other  arts  and  sciences — to 
the  Greeks,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  as  good. 
He  had  good,  clean  limbs  and  head,  but  his  body 
was  too  thick  and  chunky.  This  defect  doubtless 
came  from  a  mistaken  idea  on  the  part  of  his 
breeders  as  to  what  constituted  equine  beauty  and 
grandeur,  the  wide  chest  and  thick,  arched  neck 
seeming  to  them  to  present  a  more  imposing  ap- 
pearance than  a  finer  and  better  type. 

Fortunately,  we  know  just  how  the  Roman 
horse  looked.  The  equestrian  statue  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  made  by  an  unknown  sculptor  some  sev- 


A    GOOD    HORSE  ^3 

enteen  centuries  ago  and  still  in  perfect  condition, 
gives  a  true  representation  of  the  horse  of  that 
period  and  is  well  worthy  of  the  study  of  horsemen. 

To  the  breeders  of  ancient  Greece,  notwith- 
standing Xenophon's  splendid  and  comprehensive 
treatise,  the  horseman  of  to-day  really  owes  very 
little.  Our  most  precious  legacy  did  not  come 
from  them.  But  there  was  a  race  of  men,  even 
at  that  early  day,  who  not  only  knew  the  form  of 
the  true  horse,  but  also  knew,  as  familiarly  as 
their  own  souls,  the  laws  and  principles  by  which 
he  was  produced — the  Arabs.  To  them  be  the 
honor  of  having,  through  all  the  centuries  in  which 
so  much  that  was  precious  was  lost,  preserved  for 
us  in  its  pristine  purity  the  highest  type  of  horses 
the  world  has  known. 

We  owe  to  the  work  of  the  Arab  breeders  all 
that  we  most  value  in  our  horses — speed,  endur- 
ance, disposition,  and  elegance  of  form,  all  came 
from  this  source.  The  thoroughbred,  fastest 
horse  in  the  world  at  the  run,  was  evolved  directly 
from  Arabian  blood;  and  in  our  trotters,  though 
by  a  less  direct  route,  it  plays  an  equally  impor- 
tant part.  Count  Orloff  used  it  largely  in  per- 
fecting the  Orloff  trotter  of  Russia — a  wonderful 
animal  in  many  respects;  and  it  is  even  claimed, 
with  more  or  less  show  of  reason,  that  it  entered 
somewhat  into   the   composition  of  some   of  our 


24  THE   HORSE 

heavier  breeds.  All  this  does  not  prove  that  the 
Arabian  is  the  best  horse  for  all  purposes ;  on  the 
contrary,  at  the  present  age  of  the  world,  there 
are  only  a  few  uses  for  which,  v/hen  bred  in  his 
purity,  he  is  best  adapted.  But  Arabian  blood  is 
the  leaven  that  leavens  the  whole  lump,  the  element 
without  which  our  best  breeds  of  horses  could  not 
have  been  evolved. 


CHAPTER  II 

OUR  DEBT  TO   THE   ARAB 

IF  I  seem  to  be  dwelling  too  long  on  the  blood 
lines  that  go  to  make  up  our  modern  breeds, 
I  can  only  say  that,  without  a  clear  percep- 
tion of  the  why  and  wherefore  of  things,  any 
really  intelligent  grasp  of  the  science  of  horse- 
manship is  impossible.  There  are  many  sea  cap- 
tains who  have  learned  to  take  observations  and 
work  them  out  by  certain  formulas  which  they  do 
not  understand,  but  which,  nevertheless,  give  them 
the  ship's  position  on  the  chart.  Such  men  make 
shift  to  get  around,  it  is  true,  but  they  never  be- 
come such  skilled  and  expert  navigators  as  those 
who  not  only  apply  the  required  formula,  but 
know  exactly  why  they  do  so. 

Among  the  different  horses  you  have  owned 
there  have  been  some  whose  skin  was  thinner  and 
whose  coat  finer  than  the  others,  who,  when 
warmed  up  a  little,  would  show  a  fine  network  of 
veins  under  the  skin,  and  when  put  to  some  un- 
usually long  and  hard  journey  would  finish  with 
a  nerve  and  energy  that  were  more  and  more  ap- 

25 


26  THE    HORSE 

parent  from  beginning  to  end.  Do  you  know 
why?  I  am  glad  to  say,  though  well  enough 
acquainted  with  the  other  kind,  that  I  have  had 
many  such  and  am  at  present  using  every  day  a 
certain  mare,  thoroughbred,  who,  when  she  came 
into  my  possession,  was  so  high-strung,  so  full  of 
nervous  energy,  that  she  had  never  been  known  to 
walk  a  step,  and  for  this  reason  was  never  used  by 
her  owner  or  his  family,  but  always  exercised  by 
a  groom. 

Under  a  little  sane  treatment  (a  matter  of 
which  I  shall  have  more  to.  say  later)  she  soon 
learned  to  go  quietly  with  me.  But  let  the  drive 
be  rather  longer  than  common — say  ten  miles,  in- 
stead of  her  usual  four  or  five — and  the  old  spirit 
and  nervous  ambition  are  all  back  again.  And 
if,  on  an  all-day  drive,  her  muscles  become  tired, 
as  they  needs  must,  she  does  not  know  it  and,  if 
I  let  her,  would  undoubtedly  keep  going  till  she 
fell  in  her  tracks. 

Now  this  quality,  although  we  have,  in  breed- 
ing, to  consider  many  other  things,  such  as  size, 
style,  disposition,  and  the  ability  to  haul  a  heavy 
load,  is  of  all  equine  attributes,  the  most  kingly; 
it  is  the  spirit  that  never  quits  and  never  says  die. 
Without  it,  our  race-horses  would  be  valueless 
and  our  roadsters  no  pleasure  to  use.  It  is  easy 
enough,  and  true  enough,  to  say  that  it  is  owing  to 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         27 

the  *^  warm  blood  "  a  horse  has  in  his  veins.  But 
this  does  not  wholly  answer  the  question,  nor  go 
quite  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  What  makes 
warm  blood?  What  gives  to  our  thoroughbreds 
and  trotters  their  dead-game  qualities  ? 

The  answer  is  oriental  blood — Arabian  or,  if 
not  always  literally  and  strictly  that,  then  of  a 
stock  so  closely  allied  as  to  be  practically  the 
same  thing.  It  is  true  that  we  have  to  go  back 
a  long  distance  to  find  it,  but  there  it  is,  the  start- 
ing-point, the  source  and  fountainhead  of  the 
highest  equine  characteristics.  Again,  why.''  Be- 
cause the  Arabian  horse  was  bred  with  reference 
to  speed  and  endurance  and  upon  the  highest 
standard  of  conformation  and  character,  from  a 
period  so  remote  that  it  can  hardly  be  traced. 
And  the  fixity  of  t^^pe  in  any  breed — its  tendency 
to  reproduce  itself  unaltered  when  bred,  like  sire 
to  like  dam,  and  its  prepotency  when  crossed 
upon  other  stock — is  in  direct  proportion  to  the 
time  it  has  been  bred  as  a  distinct  breed  without 
contamination  or  admixture. 

We,  whose  beards  are  gray,  can  recall  a  time, 
not  so  very  long  ago,  either,  when  the  trotter  was 
a  colder-blooded  horse  than  he  is  now  and  when 
it  was  often  said,  especially  by  breeders  of  thor- 
oughbred stock,  that  the  American  trotter  was 
of  no  fixed  type  and  no  recognized  conformation. 


S8  THE    HORSE 

Going  back  a  good  deal  farther,  there  was  a  time 
when  the  same  thing  could  be  said  of  the  English 
race-horse.  In  the  main,  his  breeders  were  trying 
to  develop  him  by  simply  selecting  the  best  and 
fastest  stock.  The  introduction  of  certain  ani- 
mals of  Eastern  breeding — the  Byerley  Turk  and, 
later,  the  Curwen  Barb  and  the  now  famous  Dar- 
ley  Arabian — made  an  impress  so  marked  that 
their  value  could  not  be  ignored,  but  it  was  not 
till  the  days  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  some 
twenty  years  later,  that  the  value  of  oriental  blood, 
as  the  true  source  of  speed  and  endurance,  was 
fully  recognized  and  understood  by  horsemen. 

The  story  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian  is  one  of 
the  most  fascinating  in  equine  history.  In  com- 
mon with  the  accounts  of  much  that  occurred  in 
that  long-ago  time  some  of  its  details  are  doubt- 
less open  to  question  and  its  missing  pages  filled 
in  by  matter  that  is  not  well  attested.  So  I  give 
the  story  for  whatever  it  may  be  worth,  but  to 
those  who  prefer  to  doubt  it  I  would  point  out 
two  things, — first,  that  any  doubt  that  may  be 
felt  of  the  more  romantic  incidents  with  which  his 
story  is  credited  can  take  nothing  away  from  the 
honor  which  is  his  proven  right ;  and  furthermore 
that  the  obscurity  which  would  make  possible  the 
introduction  of  fictitious  incidents  attended  only 
the  first  part  of  the  horse's  career;  later,  as  the 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         29 

most  noted  horse  of  his  period,  his  place  in  the 
annals  of  the  English  race-horse  is  a  matter  of 
record. 

This  celebrated  horse,  whose  original  name  was 
Scham,  was  one  of  several  choice  animals  that 
were  sent  as  a  present  to  the  King  of  France  by 
the  Bey  of  Tunis.  Each,  as  the  proper  accom- 
paniment of  so  princely  a  gift,  had  an  attendant 
Moorish  slave  as  groom.  Scham's  groom,  Agba, 
seems  to  have  been  a  man  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  horsemanship  of  his  country  and  fully  aware 
of  the  great  value  of  his  charge,  which  he  had 
trained  and  attended  from  birth.  But  the  pres- 
ent, splendid  as  it  was,  made  little  impression  on 
the  French  king.  The  finely-formed,  nervous  ani- 
mals were  of  a  type  to  which  he  was  unaccustomed 
and  of  which  he  knew  nothing;  differing  totally 
from  the  heavy  French  stock,  they  seemed  to  him 
small,  insignificant,  and,  in  a  word,  of  little  value. 
He  gave  the  slaves  their  liberty  and  directed  his 
master  of  the  stables  to  sell  the  horses  for  what 
they  would  bring.  Scham  was  thus  acquired  by  a 
drunken  teamster,  who  drove  a  garbage-cart,  and 
put  to  work  in  his  new  owner's  business.  What 
became  of  the  others  is  unknown. 

Agba  was  separated  from  his  charge  and  for 
many  weeks  knew  nothing  of  his  whereabouts. 
But  he  was  keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that,  however 


so  THE   HORSE 

the  horse  might  be  underestimated  in  France,  in 
Tunis,  where  king  and  commoner  alike  were  horse- 
men, he  was  adjudged  of  great  value.  He  resolved 
to  find  the  horse  and,  if  possible,  to  acquire  him 
by  a  term  of  service.  Adrift,  as  he  was,  in  a 
strange  city  and  knowing  but  little  of  its  lan- 
guage, the  search  was  no  easy  matter,  and  when 
he  finally  discovered  the  horse — which  was  late 
one  evening,  in  one  of  the  poorest  parts  of  the 
city — he  found  him  miserably  stabled,  covered 
with  harness-galls  and  sores,  and  so  emaciated  as 
to  be  hardly  recognizable.  He  threw  his  arms 
around  the  horse's  neck  and,  with  many  caresses 
and  words  of  endearment,  proceeded  to  make  him 
as  comfortable  as  the  shed  and  its  meager  equip- 
ment permitted. 

While  he  was  thus  engaged  the  carter  appeared. 
Scornfully  (and,  perhaps,  naturally)  rejecting 
Agba's  offer  to  purchase  the  horse  by  a  term  of 
service,  he  ordered  the  Moor  out  of  the  stable. 
The  latter  had  no  alternative  but  to  obey,  but  he 
by  no  means  gave  up  his  purpose.  In  some  way 
and  some  time  so  precious  an  animal  must  be  res- 
cued from  his  wretched  situation;  meanwhile,  he 
must  be  cared  for  and  his  strength  kept  up.  By 
doing  sundry  odd  jobs  about  the  city,  Agba  man- 
aged to  pick  up  a  little  money  and  with  this,  often 
stinting  himself  of  needed  food,  he  bought  grain 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         31 

and  medicine,  and  surreptitiously  visiting  Scham 
at  night,  he  fed  him,  bathed  his  wounds,  and 
otherwise  afforded  liim  what  comfort  he  could. 
There  is  little  question  that  the  horse  would  have 
died  during  this  period  had  it  not  been  for  this 
care  and  attention. 

One  day  an  English  Quaker,  who  was  staying 
in  Paris,  saw  Scham  pitifully  struggling  with  a 
load  that  he  could  not  draw,  his  master,  mean- 
while, applying  a  heavy  whip.  The  Quaker  was 
a  horseman,  and  his  practised  eye  promptly  took 
in  the  points  that  the  French  king  had  failed  to 
see.  Clearly,  this  was  no  ordinary  horse.  Ex- 
amining him  and  satisfying  himself  of  his  age  and 
soundness,  he  at  once  purchased  him  of  the  carter. 
Agba,  who  soon  learned  of  the  event,  now  sought 
the  Quaker  and  told  his  story — with  the  result 
that  he  was  hired  as  groom  for  Scham  and  both 
were  sent  to  the  Quaker's  country  seat  in  England. 

Thus  the  horse  first  found  himself  on  English 
soil  and,  under  good  feed  and  treatment,  he  soon 
regained  his  original  beauty  and  spirit.  Indeed, 
he  regained  tlie  latter  in  too  large  a  degree,  for 
the  Friend's  family,  accustomed  as  they  were  to 
colder-blooded  animals,  became  afraid  of  him  and 
he  was  sold  to  a  livery-stable  keeper,  named 
Rogers.  Agba,  greatly  chagrined  at  the  occur- 
rence, left  the  Friend's  employ  and  sought  a  posi- 


S2  THE    HORSE 

tion  with  Rogers,  but  the  latter  refused  to  hire 
him.  This  proved  a  mistake,  for  Scham  was  get- 
ting more  grain  than  he  was  used  to  in  his  native 
land  and  he  needed  skilful  management.  Under 
the  care  of  Rogers's  grooms  he  grew  irritable  and 
vicious,  and  soon  Rogers  himself  could  do  nothing 
with  him. 

Agba  now  applied  a  second  time  for  employ- 
ment, doubtless  with  the  "  I  told  you  so  "  that  is 
always  so  exasperating  to  the  man  who  is  wrong. 
Rogers  not  only  refused  to  hire  him,  but  forbade 
him  the  premises.  But  Agba  continued  to  hang 
around  the  stable,  visiting  the  horse  when  he 
could,  and,  to  put  a  stop  to  this,  he  was  arrested 
a  few  nights  later  when  scaling  the  stable  wall 
with  some  carrots  in  his  pocket  that  he  had 
brought  for  Scham  and  put  into  jail  on  a  charge 
of  attempted  burglary. 

News  of  this  occurrence  reached  Lord  Godol- 
phin,  who  lived  in  the  near  neighborhood  and  had 
already  heard  from  the  Quaker  the  story  of  the 
horse  and  the  Moor's  remarkable  devotion  to  him. 
He  procured  Agba's  release,  took  him  into  his 
own  emplo}'',  and  bought  the  horse  of  Rogers, 
who  was  exceedingly  glad  to  get  rid  of  him. 
Scham,  with  Agba  in  charge,  was  now  sent  to  the 
Godolphin  breeding  stables.  Abga  was  overjoyed; 
the    horse    was    now    again    owned    by    a    great 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         33 

sheik.  But  if  the  Moor  thought,  as  he  doubtless 
did,  that  the  horse's  real  value  was  now  recognized, 
he  was  soon  to  learn  his  error,  for  Godolphin  re- 
garded Scham  only  as  an  interesting  specimen  of 
the  oriental  stock,  in  no  wise  comparable  to  the 
English-bred  horses  that  formed  his  stud,  and  had 
no  thought  of  using  him  as  a  sire.  The  "  head 
of  the  stud  " — the  horse  that  held  the  place  of 
honor  in  the  stable — was  an  English-bred  stallion 
named  Hobgoblin,  and  to  him  the  best  mares  were 
bred.  But  Agba  had  nevertheless  determined 
that,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  Scham  should  have  a 
chance  to  show  his  value  as  a  sire. 

There  was  a  mare  in  the  stables,  named  Roxana, 
whom  it  had  been  arranged  to  breed  to  Hobgoblin. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  Flying  Childers  and  so  a 
descendant,  on  one  side,  of  the  Darley  Arabian 
and  was  considered  one  of  the  best  mares  in  the 
stables. 

On  the  day  that  she  was  to  be  bred  to  Hobgob- 
lin one  of  the  grooms  stood  holding  her  near  the 
center  of  the  stable-yard  while,  from  a  gate  at  the 
farther  end,  the  head  groom  entered,  leading  Hob- 
goblin. A  surprise  was  in  store  for  the  head 
groom.  As  he  passed  the  enclosure  where  Scham 
was  kept,  its  door  was  suddenly  thrown  wide  open 
and  Scham,  with  a  shrill  neigh,  rushed  out.  Ow- 
ing partly  to  his  past  record  and  partly  to  stories 


84  THE    HORSE 

told  by  Agba,  Scham  was  greatly  feared  in  the 
stables,  and  when  he  came  thus  loose  into  the  yard 
both  grooms  deserted  their  horses  and  fled.  Hob- 
goblin, however,  was  more  brave;  he  at  once  chal- 
lenged the  intruder  and  in  a  moment  the  fight 
was  on. 

Not  to  go  into  the  details  of  the  encounter,  it 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  Scham,  although  much 
smaller,  thrashed  the  big  stallion,  thrashed  him 
thoroughly  and  well,  thrashed  him  till  he  fled  the 
yard,  leaving  Roxana,  who,  meanwhile,  had  been 
standing  quietly  by,  quite  as  if  awaiting  the  result 
of  the  combat.  And  if  Scham  did  not  realize  at 
first  the  full  extent  of  his  victory,  we  may  be  sure 
that  Agba  did.  For  the  horse  had  triumphed 
both  in  love  and  war. 

Word  of  what  had  taken  place  was  sent  to 
Lord  Godolphin,  but  it  was  too  late,  as  Roxana 
was  now  in  foal  to  Scham.  In  due  season  she  pro- 
duced a  colt  who  was  named  Lath.  Lord  Godol- 
phin's  views  now  began  to  change,  for,  as  Lath 
grew  and  developed,  he  proved  much  superior  to 
any  of  the  get  of  Hobgoblin ;  and  when,  as  a  two- 
year-old,  he  easily  beat  them  all,  as  well  as  several 
other  of  the  best  youngsters  in  England,  the  value 
of  his  sire  was  established. 

The  Godolphin  Arabian,  as  Scham  was  called, 
now  became  the  most  famous  sire  in  England — 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         35 

not,  perhaps,  that  he  was  really  better  than  the 
Arabian  sires  who  preceded  him  (though  of  this 
we  cannot  judge)  but  that  horsemen  now  knew, 
for  the  first  time,  what  Arabian  blood  really  stood 
for.  The  sons  and  daughters  of  Arabian  sires 
had  always  proved  superior  animals,  but  breeders 
knew  now  that  this  was  not  because  the  imported 
sires  happened,  by  chance,  to  be  good  horses  and 
prepotent  getters,  but  because  they  were  Arabian. 
Breeders  of  racing-stock  now  bred  back  to  the 
Arabian  strain  again  and  again,  till  there  was 
practically  no  other  blood  in  their  stock.  And 
thus  originated  the  word  "  thoroughbred,"  so 
often  misunderstood  and  misapplied.  For  thor- 
oughbred means:  Bred  thoroughly  to  the  parent 
or  original  stock. 

Time,  the  skill  of  man  and  a  climate  generous 
of  oats  and  grass  have  since  greatly  modified  the 
thoroughbred  horse.  He  is  faster  now  than  his 
Arabian  progenitor,  and  he  is  larger  and  does 
not  resemble  him  very  closely  in  conformation. 
He  presents,  in  fact,  all  the  characteristics  of  a 
distinct  and  pure  type.  But  he  has  the  same 
blood-like  and  aristocratic  look,  the  same  clean 
limbs  and  head,  fine  skin,  and  points  of  excellence. 
And  as  the  most  ancient  type  of  our  modern 
horses,  he  is  prepotent  above  all  others. 

Among  American  horses,  the  thoroughbred  is 


36  THE    HORSE 

the  only  one  that  was  developed  directly  from  the 
Arabian.  But  indirectly,  through  thoroughbred 
crosses,  Arabian  blood  has  had  an  important  part 
in  the  development  of  all  our  best  types  and  breeds 
of  roadsters.  In  all  breeds  thus  formed  the  thor- 
oughbred strain — whether  late  or  remote — is  un- 
mistakable; most  interesting  of  all,  perhaps,  is 
the  part  it  has  played  in  the  development  of  the 
American  trotter. 

Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  study  care- 
fully the  pedigrees  of  our  early  trotters  will  be 
struck  by  the  frequency  with  which  thorough- 
bred crosses  appear.  Again  and  again  they  re- 
cur. And  yet  the  history  of  the  trotter  was,  in 
some  respects,  like  that  of  the  thoroughbred ;  men 
did  not  seem  to  grasp  the  true  significance  of  this 
fact,  and  it  was  not  till  Leland  Stanford  bought 
Electioneer  and  bred  him  to  strictly  thoroughbred 
mares  that  the  full  value  of  thoroughbred  blood 
in  developing  the  American  trotter  as  a  breed  was 
clearly  recognized.  Ever  since  then  its  effect  has 
been  increasingly  apparent,  and  if  there  were 
some  cold-blooded  trotters  in  the  old  days,  the 
trotter  of  the  present  is  a  clean  and  blood-like 
animal,  as  game  in  every  way  as  the  thoroughbred 
of  whose  blood  he  so  largely  partakes. 

In  thus  showing  the  way  in  which  Arabian  blood 
has  come  down  to  our  finest  modern  horses  I  must 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    ARAB         37 

not  be  understood  as  implying  that  its  further  use 
would  therefore  work  further  improvement.  For 
every  distinct  breed  has  its  distinct  and  special 
purpose.  And  in  all  well-established  breeds — the 
test  of  which  always  is  that  they  shall  reproduce 
themselves  unaltered  when  bred,  like  sire  to  like 
dam — the  time  for  outcrossing  has  ceased  and 
they  are  best  improved  within  their  own  lines. 
The  most  striking  instance  of  this  is  furnished  by 
the  thoroughbred.  For,  although  evolved  from 
the  Arabian,  he  is  now,  as  we  have  stated,  a  faster 
horse;  and  no  one  could  say  that  (unless  lacking 
in  endurance  or  some  other  essential  quality,  which 
he  surely  is  not)  he  could  be  improved  by  crossing 
with  anything  that  is  slower. 

If  a  further  improvement  of  the  thoroughbred 
is  possible,  it  must  come — as  improvement  must 
come  in  the  case  of  every  one  of  our  well-estab- 
lished animal  types — not  by  new  crossings,  but 
by  the  judicious  breeding  that  aims  to  develop 
and  accentuate  the  virtues  the  breed  has  now. 


CHAPTER  III 
CHOICE  Of  a  breed  and  principles  in 

BREEDING 

THE  farmer  who  desires  to  raise  horses  for 
market  should  first  consider  carefully  and 
earnestly  his  choice  of  the  kind  of  horses 
he  shall  raise.  Shall  it  be  draft  stock,  carriage 
horses,  thoroughbreds,  or  trotters?  There  is  a 
demand  for  all.  Draft  horses  are  constantly 
needed ;  fine  carriage  horses  were  never  worth  more 
than  they  are  now,  and  horses  for  speed  will  un- 
doubtedly be  wanted  as  long  as  civilization  endures 
and  our  human  nature  remains  what  it  is. 

First  of  all  comes  the  question  of  fitness  of  lo- 
cality. As  we  have  said,  horses  can  be  raised  suc- 
cessfully in  any  place  where  it  is  fit  to  farm  at  all ; 
nevertheless,  when  It  comes  to  the  choice  of  breed, 
the  question  of  environment  cannot  be  wholly  ig- 
nored. A  rough,  hilly  farm,  for  instance,  where 
the  pasturage  is  scanty  and  the  animals  have  to 
"  rustle  "  more  or  less  for  a  living,  is  a  very  poor 
place  in  which  to  raise  heavy  draft  horses.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  rich,  level  country  is  especially 
well  suited  to  such  stock,  and  is  equally  unsuited 

33 


CHOICE    OF    A    BREED  89 

to  the  raising  of  little  ponies,  whose  smallness  is 
the  measure  of  their  value. 

These,  it  will  be  observed,  are  extreme  types  and 
for  that  reason  are  taken  as  examples.  For  all 
general  truths  should  be  accepted  with  common 
sense,  and  it  is  along  the  means  between  these  ex- 
tremes that  the  drawbacks  of  an  environment 
which  may  not,  in  itself,  be  the  best,  can  be  suc- 
cessfully overcome. 

Of  equal  importance  is  the  matter  of  market. 
If  a  man  goes  to  raising  carriage  stock  in  a  lo- 
cality where  every  one  else  is  raising  draft  stock, 
even  if  the  country  is  equally  well  adapted  to  it, 
he  will  often  find  himself  somewhat  handicapped 
in  selling,  simply  because  the  place  is  known  by  its 
principal  output  and  its  buyers  are  looking  for 
draft  stock  and  nothing  else.  The  same  thing, 
of  course,  applies  to  the  breeder  of  draft  stock 
in  a  carriage-horse-breeding  neighborhood,  and 
the  lesson  is  simply  that  it  is  easier  and  generally 
more  profitable  to  go  with  the  stream  than  against 
it,  although  there  are  many  neighborhoods  where 
all  kinds  of  horses  are  raised  and  where  one  can 
be  raised  as  advantageously  as  another. 

But  most  of  all,  in  my  opinion,  should  the 
breeder  consider  his  own  personal  tastes  and  in- 
clinations. What  kind  of  horse  attracts  him 
most?     And  how  much  time  and  attention  will  he 


40  THE    HORSE 

bestow  upon  his  horses?  Upon  the  answer  to 
these  questions  his  choice  should  largely  depend. 

Next  to  ponies,  which  are  the  least  care  of  all, 
draft  stock  Is  the  most  easily  managed — partly 
because  it  is  rather  less  liable  to  accident  than 
other  kinds  and  partly  because,  althougk  it  must 
be  practically  matured  to  sell,  very  lit^  is  re- 
quired In  the  way  of  preparation  beyond  having 
it  in  nice  condition  and  sufficiently  well  broken  to 
go  safely  in  harness.  Carriage  horses,  on  tke 
other  hand,  require  considerable  handlliag;  they 
must,  beyond  all  things,  show  well,  and  an  evident 
greenness  will  often  upset  a  sale  which  otherwise 
would  go  through  all  right.  All  thk  takes  time 
and  attention.  Trotting  stock  also  requlrds  more 
preparation  than  draft,  although,  in  the  case  of 
horses  raised  expressly  for  speed.  It  Is  usually  bet- 
ter to  sell  when  quite  young  and  let  the  buyer  at- 
tend to  all  the  training,  except  the  mere  breaking 
to  harness. 

The  man  who  has  not  the  time  and  patience  for 
all  this  careful  training  or  who  cannot  bring  te 
his  work  that  deep  Interest  that  leads  him  to  ac- 
cept philosophically  the  greater  risks  and  disap- 
pointments that  go  with  the  breeding  of  road  stock 
had  best  confine  himself  to  the  safer  and  easier 
task  of  raising  draft  horses.  Nor  need  he  fear 
that  the  field  will  not  furnish  ample  scope  for  all 


CHOICE    OF    A    BREED  41 

the  skill  and  knowledge  he  may  have.  For  In 
draft  stock,  as  in  all  others,  the  handsomest  and 
best  bring  the  good  prices — the  prices  that  make 
it  worth  while  and  add  zest  and  pleasure  to  the 
breeder's  work.  And  the  best  product,  though 
easier  of  attainment  in  some  lines  than  in  others, 
is  never  to  be  had  without  both  care  and  pains. 

But  if  he  can  bring  to  the  work  of  raising 
horses  the  patience  that  does  not  tire  and  the 
zeal  that  does  not  flag;  if  he  is  willing  to  give  to 
it  the  best  that  is  in  him  of  intelligence  and  study 
and  perseverance  and  realizes  that  the  improve- 
ment of  the  highest  of  our  domestic  animals  is 
well  worthy  of  the  sacrifice ;  if  he  has  that  innate 
love  of  the  herse  which  brings  insight  into  char- 
acter and  nature  as  well  as  physical  features, 
then,  by  all  means,  let  him  choose  some  one  of  the 
finer  types  of  road  stock.  It  will  yield  him  a 
commensurate  return  in  money  and  also  a  pleasure 
and  satisfaction  that  will  last  as  long  as  he  lives. 

The  prizes  to  be  wen  in  horse-breeding  are  in 
proportion  to  the  risks  taken — a  condition  that 
applies,  in  fact,  to  pretty  nearly  every  other  in- 
dustry. And  so,  as  it  is  easier  to  raise  draft 
horses,  their  breeder  is  more  certain  of  a  fairly 
uniform  price.  But  the  highest  prices  of  all  go 
to  the  best  of  the  finer  types,  the  animals  that  are 
the  hardest  of  all  to  produce. 


4^  THE    HORSE 

The  kind  of  horse  once  chosen,  the  next  step 
for  the  breeder  is  to  have  a  distinct  picture  in  his 
mind  of  the  type  at  which  he  aims  and  ahvays 
.breed  with  that  end  in  view.  This  is  the  first 
principle  in  successful  breeding  and  it  can  never 
be  neglected  with  impunity.  There  is  an  ex- 
tremely erroneous  idea  in  many  minds  that  if  the 
breeder  has  his  foundation  stock  of  some  pure  and 
distinct  breed,  he  will  then  be  saved  this  trouble 
and  that  all  he  will  have  to  do  is  to  breed  his  regis- 
tered mares  to  a  registered  horse  of  the  same  kind. 
But  there  is  no  royal  road  in  stock-breeding ;  and 
if  the  same  care  is  not  observed  in  the  mating  of 
pure-bred  parents  that  would  be  in  the  case  of 
other  animals,  the  stock  will  surely  and  swiftly 
deteriorate. 

It  seems  almost  needless  to  add  that  the  ideal  at 
which  the  breeder  aims  should  be  first  of  all  per- 
fect in  conformation.  For  instance,  if  you  are 
raising  Percherons,  in  which  large  size  is  a  de- 
sirable feature,  have  the  size,  by  all  means,  if  pos- 
sible, but  do  not  sacrifice  symmetry  to  it ;  sym- 
metry should  come  first.  I  am  convinced  that 
even  the  breeders  of  trotters  can  make  more  money 
in  the  long  run  and  have  a  far  more  satis  factory^ 
experience  when  they  breed  for  type  and  confor- 
mation rather  than  speed.  A  great  many  breed- 
ers   of    trotting    stock,    in    fact,    do    this.     For 


CHOICE    OF    A    BREED  45 

speed,  however  desirable,  is  not,  in  its  superlative 
degree,  easily  attained;  whereas  beauty,  style, 
action,  and  finish,  which  are  easier  to  produce,  are 
always  in  keen  demand  and  always  command  a  high 
price. 

In  deciding  what  stallion  to  use,  the  criterion 
by  which  he  should  always,  if  possible,  be  judged 
is  the  quality  of  his  get.  This  is  the  highest  test 
of  the  value  of  any  sire,  and  it  is  obvious  that,  if 
his  get  is  uniformly  superior,  his  individual  quali- 
ties are  of  little  consequence  in  comparison.  But 
if,  as  in  the  case  of  a  young  and  untried  horse, 
this  proof  of  his  value  is  wanting,  he  must  be 
judged  by  his  breeding  and  his  merits  as  an  indi- 
vidual. He  should  run  true  to  his  type,  whatever 
that  may  be — whether  thoroughbred,  carriage,  or 
draft — and  his  pedigree  should  be  free  from 
crosses  with  other  types.  This  forefends  the 
danger  of  reversion,  or  "  taking  back,"  which, 
when  a  cross-bred  stallion  is  used.  Is  always  im- 
minent. Reversion,  it  is  true,  may  also  occur  in 
pure-bred  and  homogeneously-bred  stock,  but  it 
will  be  readily  seen  that  if  the  foal  takes  back  to 
a  horse  of  the  same  kind  as  his  sire  but  little  mis- 
chief Is  done.  It  is  when  he  takes  back  to  a  horse 
of  a  different  kind  that  his  breeder's  calculations 
are  upset. 

The  mare  should  always  be  of  somewhat  the 


44  THE    HORSE 

same  type  as  the  stallion;  difference  in  size  does 
not  matter  very  much,  as  long  as  the  type  is  rea- 
sonably similar — though,  of  course,  the  difference 
should  not  be  excessive.  It  is  only  when  the  two 
parents  are  somewhat  alike  in  type  and  points 
that  they  assimilate  nicely  and  the  points  of  one 
are  modified  or  strengthened,  as  the  case  may  be, 
by  those  of  the  other.  It  is  in  this  way  that  good 
points  are  fixed  and  perpetuated  and  along  no 
other  road  can  much  progress  be  made  in  breed- 
ing. The  folly,  therefore,  of  mating  extremes,  in 
the  hope  that  the  good  points  of  one  will  offset 
the  bad  points  of  the  other,  should  be  apparent ;  if 
a  weedy,  long-backed,  and  loosely  put-up  mare  be 
bred  to  a  very  chunky  and  compact  stallion — her 
exact  opposite  in  type — the  resulting  foal  is  very 
rarely  a  happy  medium  between  the  two;  sym- 
metrical, well-proportioned  animals  are  not  pro- 
duced in  that  way. 

And,  likewise,  if  both  parents  have  good  points, 
the  mating  of  extremes  is  unwise ;  it  would  be  fool- 
ish, for  instance,  to  breed  a  thoroughbred  mare 
to  a  draft  stallion  or  a  heavy  draft  mare  to  a 
thoroughbred  stallion — although,  if  we  are  to 
choose  between  evils,  the  latter  is  the  less  objec- 
tionable of  the  two. 

Some  years  ago  a  farmer  came  to  me  with  a 
mare  that  he  wanted  to  breed.     I  had  three  stal- 


CHOICE    OF   A    BREED  45 

lions  at  the  time;  one  of  trotting  and  thorough 
blood  (his  sire  a  trotter,  his  dam  a  thoroughbred)  ; 
one  a  Percheron,  and  one  a  small  pony.  He 
looked  them  all  over  and  decided  upon  the  Per- 
cheron as  being  the  heaviest  and  most  compact. 
The  mare  was  an  ill-looking  brute — weedy,  long- 
backed,  upright-shouldered,  cow-hocked,  and  gen- 
erally as  lacking  in  good  points  as  anything  I 
ever  saw.  To  my  expressed  doubt  of  the  wisdom 
of  breeding  such  an  animal  her  owner  averred  that 
her  points  might  be  a  trifle  off,  but  the  horse  would 
set  that  all  right.  In  point  of  fact,  he  did  not ; 
I  doubt  if  anything  on  earth  could  have  set  right 
that  combination  of  horrors,  and  the  resulting 
colt  was  such  a  disgrace  to  his  sire  that  I  objected 
to  the  mare  being  brought  back  a  second  time. 

In  connection  with  this  same  stallion  I  recall 
another  instance  which  illustrates  the  point, 
though  in  a  different  way,  and  that  was  the  breed- 
ing to  him  of  a  thoroughbred  mare.  The  mare 
was  a  beauty  and  had  the  best  of  points,  but  was, 
in  my  opinion,  of  too  slender  and  delicate  a  type 
to  be  bred  to  so  heavy  a  horse.  The  colt,  how- 
ever, proved  to  be  very  handsome  and,  as  he  grew 
and  developed,  was  frequently  pointed  out  to  me 
as  evidence  of  my  mistaken  judgment.  Still,  I 
had  my  doubts ;  the  mingling  of  types  in  him  was 
not    perfect   and   his    limbs,    though    beautifully 


46  THE    HORSE 

formed,  were  not  as  heavy  as  they  should  be  for 
his  body.  As  he  matured,  this  disproportion  be- 
came more  evident  and  I  was  not  surprised  when 
at  four  years  he  threw  out  a  curb  on  each  hind  leg. 

Both  parents  of  this  colt  were  sound  and  of 
sound  lineage.  The  trouble  was  that  the  cross 
was  too  extreme. 

The  disposition  of  a  horse  is  a  thing  of  so  much 
importance  that  no  breeder  can  afford  to  over- 
look it.  It  is,  of  course,  a  well-known  fact  that 
many  naturally  good  colts  are  spoiled  and  have 
their  tempers  soured  by  bad  management.  But 
this  does  not  account,  by  any  means,  for  all  the 
bad  ones.  Horses  vary  in  character  and  disposi- 
tion as  much  as  human  beings  do  and  come  by 
their  traits  in  the  same  way — by  inheritance. 

The  disposition  of  a  horse  seems  to  be  inherited 
more  from  his  dam  than  his  sire.  So  true  is  this 
that,  while  I  have  known  many  good-dispositioned 
colts  whose  sires  were  not  very  pleasant  animals, 
I  have  known  very  few  who  were  the  offspring  of 
peevish,  irritable,  and  treacherous  mares.  Such 
mares  should  never  be  used  for  breeding,  unless 
some  exceptional  circumstance  (as  the  possession 
of  unusual  speed  or  endurance)  may  make  it  seem 
worth  while,  and  even  then  its  expediency  may 
often  be  doubted.  For  the  disposition  of  a  horse 
affects  his  value  very  materially  and  there  are 


CHOICE    OF    A    BREED  47 

enough  good  mares  in  the  world  to  raise  colts 
from,  without  using  the  bad  ones. 

The  instances  I  have  met  with  of  bad  disposi- 
tion that  was  clearly  the  result  of  inheritance 
have  been  numerous.  One  of  them,  which  seemed 
to  me  of  special  interest,  is,  I  think,  worth  re- 
counting. A  former  neighbor  of  mine,  a  carpen- 
ter by  trade,  with  little  knowledge  of  horses,  was 
seized  by  a  desire  to  raise  a  fast  horse.  For  this 
purpose  he  bought  a  black  mare,  of  unknown 
breeding,  but  very  handsome  and  rather  fast;  he 
bought  her  for  a  mere  song  because  she  was  of  a 
disposition  so  irritable  and  treacherous  as  to  ren- 
der her  of  little  real  value.  With  the  judgment 
to  be  expected  of  a  man  who  would  buy  such  an 
animal  for  a  brood  mare,  he  bred  her  to  a  stallion 
whose  disposition  was  as  bad  as  hers.  Thus  he 
had  the  material  for  a  pretty  bad  inheritance  on 
both  sides. 

The  result  was  a  filly  remarkably  handsome  and 
with  promise  of  some  speed.  The  carpenter  and 
his  wife  made  a  great  pet  of  her  and  for  three 
years  she  showed  no  ill  temper  worth  mentioning; 
there  was  nothing,  in  fact,  to  rouse  it.  Then  she 
was  put  out  to  a  "  breaker  "  of  the  old  school  to 
be  broken  to  harness.  The  breaker,  as  was 
learned  later,  had  nothing  but  trouble  with  her; 
trouble,  too,  of  so  serious  a  kind  that  he  acquired 


48  THE    HORSE 

a  great  respect  for  her  teeth  and  heels.  In  due 
time,  however,  he  returned  her  "  nicely  broken," 
as  he  said.  But  having,  in  some  remote  corner 
of  his  make-up,  something  which  he  probably  con- 
sidered a  conscience  and,  possibly  unwilling  for 
the  carpenter  to  die  unwarned,  he  added  that 
"  when  you  use  her,  you  want  to  look  out  sharp, 
for  there's  lots  of  gimp  in  her," 

Had  the  carpenter  been  more  familiar  with  the 
delicate  circumlocutions  of  the  "  profession,"  he 
might  have  guessed  the  truth ;  as  it  was,  he  inti- 
mated that  no  amount  of  "  gimp  "  was  too  much 
for  him  and  announced  that  the  next  day  he  was 
going  to  "  give  the  natives  a  surprise  party." 
He  did.  No  sooner  had  he  got  his  filly  hooked  up 
and  taken  his  seat  on  the  gig  than  she  started  to 
run  and  kick.  The  carpenter  hurled  himself  out 
backward,  as  the  quickest  way  of  quitting  the  com- 
bination, and  the  gig  was  soon  a  mass  of  kindling 
wood.  When  the  filly  was  caught,  nearly  a  mile 
away,  she  had  divested  herself  of  every  strap  of 
harness,  even  of  the  bridle — "  kicked  herself  stark 
naked  "  as  the  carpenter  told  me — a  performance 
as  extraordinary  as  it  was  immodest. 

This  episode  and  the  fact  that  the  filly  had 
things  all  her  own  way  seemed  to  rouse  all  the 
latent  devil  in  her  nature.  She  was  like  a  fiend 
incarnate  and  bit  and  kicked  to  such  an  extent 


CHOICE    OF    A    BREED  49 

that  it  was  with  great  difficulty  she  could  be  fed 
and  cared  for.  A  few  days  later  the  carpenter 
asked  me  if  I  would  take  her  and  "  get  her  to  go- 
ing gentle."  My  heart  sank  at  the  proposal,  but 
my  reputation  as  a  horseman  was  at  stake,  so  I 
named  my  price — a  good  stiff  one — which  was  at 
once  agreed  to.  I  had  treated  some  colts  that 
were  rather  bad,  but  had  not  seen  so  extreme  a 
case  as  this,  and  she  remains  on  record  as  the 
worst  horse  I  ever  handled. 

She  was  brought  to  my  barn  by  three  men,  one 
on  each  side,  with  long  ropes  attached  to  her 
bridle  and  one  behind  with  a  whip.  Her  owner 
followed  at  a  safe  distance.  His  affection  for  his 
erstwhile  pet  had  waned  and  he  spoke  of  his  recent 
back-somersault  and  of  the  filly  herself  in  terms 
unfit  for  publication. 

The  methods  by  which  this  filly  was  broken  and 
rendered  gentle  in  harness  and  stable  would  re- 
quire too  long  a  description  for  this  chapter. 
They  will  be  discussed,  in  detail,  in  a  chapter  on 
the  cure  of  vices.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  here  that 
we  did  break  her  and  sent  her  home,  a  safe  animal 
to  use  and  care  for. 

Now  all  this  trouble  came  from  a  disposition 
resulting  from  bad  judgment  in  the  selection  of 
parents.  Even  if  such  colts  can  be  subdued  and 
made  useful,  is  it  worth  while  to  raise  them?  I 
think  all  will  agree  with  me  that  it  is  not. 


CHAPTER   ly 

CURE  OF  VICES 

IN  all  training  of  horses — whether  breaking 
to  harness,  the  cure  of  bad  habits,  or  teach- 
ing the  tricks  of  the  circus — the  first  es- 
sential is  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  horse. 
For  all  scientific  training  is  based  upon  certain 
features  in  the  horse's  mental  make-up,  and 
without  a  knowledge  of  these  features  no  great 
success  can  be  made.  With  it  you  can  do  things 
that  the  majority  of  those  who  use  horses  cannot 
do.  And  yet  there  is  no  magic  in  good  horseman- 
ship. It  is  an  art,  to  be  studied  and  learned  like 
any  other  art.  And  although,  as  in  other  things, 
those  who  have  the  most  natural  aptitude  for  it 
can  become  the  most  proficient,  yet  its  principles 
are  simple  and  can  be  mastered  by  any  one. 

It  was  stated  by  Darwin  many  years  ago  that 
the  minds  of  animals  do  not  differ  from  those  of 
men  in  kind,  but  only  in  degree,  and  this  is  so 
evident  that  I  do  not  think  any  intelligent  man, 
who  has  had  much  experience  with  horses,  can 
doubt  it  for  a  moment.  The  horse  has  the  same 
emotions  as  man — love,  hate,  fear,  jealousy — and 

50 


CURE    OF    VICES  51 

his  reasoning  faculties  work  in  the  same  way,  sub- 
ject always  to  the  limitations  implied  by  the  law 
already  stated,  that  they  do  differ,  and  differ  a 
great  deal,  in  degree.  Hence,  as  we  would  nat- 
urally expect,  the  horse  reasons  a  great  deal  more 
from  experience  and  a  great  deal  less  from  observa- 
tion than  man  does.  Indeed,  horses  that  reason 
from  observation,  to  any  noteworthy  extent,  are 
rare. 

A  very  familiar  evidence  of  this  limitation  is 
seen  in  the  halter-breaking  of  colts.  The  little 
colt,  when  first  tied  up,  is  tied  by  a  halter  that 
he  cannot  possibly  break  and  (reasoning  wholly 
from  this  experience  and  in  nowise  from  what  he 
observes)  it  does  not  thereafter  occur  to  him  that 
he  can  break  away,  even  if  tied  by  a  rope  that  he 
could  snap  like  a  thread.  By  the  same  principles 
he  is  taught  the  needed  lessons  in  docility  and 
obedience  in  other  respects.  But  suppose  that 
some  time,  when  a  little  restive  and  tied  by  a  weak 
halter,  he  does  break  his  halter-rope.  If  he 
fully  realizes  what  he  has  done,  he  will  try  the 
same  thing  again,  even  if  tied  with  a  rope  strong 
enough  to  hold  a  ship. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  bad  habits  are  formed. 
The  well-broken  horse  is  kind  because,  whenever 
he  attempted  to  do  as  he  pleased,  he  found  his 
master's  will  superior  to  his  own.     He  learns  a 


52  THE    HORSE 

vice  because,  on  some  unfortunate  occasion,  he 
discovered  that  in  at  least  that  one  particular  he 
could  do  as  he  pleased  after  all  and  that  his  master 
was  powerless  to  prevent  it.  He  repeats  the  vice 
because,  having  committed  it  once  with  impunity, 
he  feels  all  confidence  that  he  can  do  so  again. 
In  the  cure  he  must  be  met  on  his  own  ground  and 
the  matter  reasoned  out,  by  arguments  that  he 
cannot  fail  to  understand,  till  he  owns  himself 
mistaken.  To  do  this — to  make  a  vicious  horse 
unlearn  the  dangerous  knowledge  of  his  own 
power — will  manifestly  require  different  and  more 
radical  measures  than  are  needed  to  check  the  colt 
in  his  first  disposition  to  go  wrong. 


YOUE  WILL  AGAINST  THE  HORSE's  WILL 


As  the  horse,  in  the  practise  of  any  vice,  shows 
a  rank  disregard  of  his  driver,  the  first  step  in 
its  cure  is  to  impress  him,  in  a  general  way,  with 
your  supremacy  and  his  own  inability  to  resist 
you  successfully.  This  you  can  never  do  by 
means  of  the  whip  or  club.  Whipping  a  horse 
punishes  him,  it  is  true,  but  it  is  powerless  to 
compel  him  to  do  what  you  want  and  it  also  rouses 
his  resentment  in  a  way  that  makes  his  training 
all  the  more  difficult.  Remember  that  the  first 
thing  you  are  striving  for  is  his  complete  subjec- 


CURE    OF    VICES  53 

tion,  that  nothing  can  be  done  till  this  is  accom- 
plished, and  that  it  must  be  accomplished,  not  by 
punishment,  hut  hy  a  display  of  power.  Fur- 
thermore, to  succeed  you  must  be  very  patient  as 
well  as  persevering,  always  remembering  that  you 
are  dealing  with  an  intelligence  inferior  to  your 
own  and  exemplifying  the  grand  old  Arab  pro- 
verb "  Fear  and  anger  a  good  horseman  never 
shows." 

In  the  treatment  for  kicking,  the  disposition 
to  kick  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  taken  out  of 
the  horse  before  he  is  harnessed.  It  is  best  to 
begin  by  laying  him  down  a  few  times,  A  horse 
lying  prone  upon  the  ground  is  robbed  of  all  his 
natural  means  of  defense,  and  the  knowledge  that 
you  can,  at  your  pleasure,  place  him  in  this  hum- 
ble and  defenseless  position  has  a  very  chastening 
effect  on  his  mind. 

Having  first  selected  a  smooth  piece  of  green- 
sward where  he  will  not  hurt  himself,  put  on  him 
a  bridle  and  surcingle  and  strap  up  his  near  fore- 
foot with  a  breeching-strap — the  short  loop 
around  his  foot,  between  hoof  and  fetlock,  and 
the  long  one  over  the  upper  part  of  his  leg.  Fas- 
ten one  end  of  a  long  strap  to  the  off  forefoot 
below  the  fetlock,  pass  the  other  end  up  through 
the  surcingle  and  take  it  in  your  right  hand,  the 
bridle-rein  being   in   your  left.     Push   the   horse 


54 


THE    HORSE 


sidewise  and  the  moment  he  steps,  pull  sharply  on 
the  strap.     This  will  bring  him  to  his  knees. 

If  he  is  a  horse  of  any  spirit,  he  will  generally 
make  a  valiant  fight  against  this  treatment,  often 
springing  high  and  plunging  desperately,  but, 
having  the  use  of  only  his  two  hind  leg^,  he  soon 


^ 


Attaching  the  Straps  for  Throwing  a  Horse 

becomes  wearied  and  rests  with  his  knees  on  the 
ground.  Now  pull  his  head  toward  you  and  he 
will  fall  over  the  other  way.  By  simply  holding 
down  his  head,  you  can  keep  him  on  the  ground  as 
long  as  you  please. 


CURE    OF    VICES  55 

Simple  as  all  this  sounds,  the  trainer  needs  his 
wits  about  him  and  must  be  alert  of  foot  and  eye, 
as  well  as  hand.  Sometimes,  with  a  really  bad 
horse,  it  takes  some  little  time  even  to  get  the 
straps  adjusted  and  the  foot  fastened  up,  and  if 
the  horse  is  large  and  strong,  the  trainer  should 
have  an  assistant,  the  latter  holding  the  horse's 
head  by  a  long  rein  attached  to  the  bridle,  while 
the  trainer  handles  only  the  foot-strap. 

When  the  horse  has  lain  on  the  ground  for  a 
few  minutes — long  enough,  say,  for  his  brains  to 
settle  a  bit — release  the  straps  and  let  him  get 
up.  Then  repeat  the  operation  and  keep  on  till 
he  ceases  to  make  much  resistance  and  shows,  by 
his  altered  demeanor,  that  he  has  lost  confidence 
in  himself.  He  is  now  ready  to  harness.  In  this 
proceed  as  follows: 

Have  ready  a  strap  one  and  one-half  inches 
wide  and  eight  inches  long,  with  a  ring  sewed 
strongly  into  each  end.  Attach  this  firmly  to 
the  top  of  the  bridle,  so  that  the  ring  hangs  just 
over  the  rosettes.  Have  an  extra  bit  (a  straight 
one,  not  joined)  in  your  horse's  mouth.  Now 
take  a  strong  cotton  cord  about  as  large  as  the 
little  finger  and,  having  one  end  in  the  breaking- 
cart,  carry  the  other  end  forward  through  the  off 
terret,  up  through  the  off  ring  on  your  short 
strap,  down  through  the  off  ring  of  the  extra  bit, 


56 


THE    HORSE 


over  the  horse's  nose,  through  the  near  ring  of 
the  extra  bit,  up  through  the  near  ring  on  the 
short  strap,  back  through  the  near  terret  and 
there  tie  to  the  long  end,  so  as  to  form  a  check- 
rein.  Adjust  this  so  as  to  keep  the  head  at  the 
proper  elevation,  rather  low  than  high,  but  not 


How  THE  Controller  Is  Rigged 


too  low.  Tie  a  string  from  the  top  of  the  bridle 
down  between  the  eyes  to  the  cord  where  it  goes 
over  the  nose,  so  that  it  will  not  slip  down. 

Now,  whenever  the  horse  attempts  to  kick,  pull 
sharply  on  the  line  and  his  nose  will  be  twitched 
up  in  the  air,  rendering  kicking  impossible,  for 


CURE    OF    VICES  57 

he  cannot  kick  when  his  nose  is  sufficiently  ele- 
vated. It  also  has  a  fine  moral  effect  on  him  that 
is  very  consoling  to  those  who  have  seen  him  kick 
a  buggy  or  two  to  pieces.  The  arrangement 
should  be  used  till  the  horse  shows  no  disposition 
whatever  to  kick  and  in  this  it  is  best  to  err  on 
the  side  of  safety,  giving  him  time  for  the  most 
thorough  repentance.  The  cord  is  not  at  all  in 
the  driver's  way  and  it  does  not  hurt  or  irritate 
the  horse  in  the  least  as  long  as  he  behaves.  When 
it  is  finally  left  off,  have  a  check-rein  made  on 
exactly  the  same  principle  and  adjust  it  so  as 
to  keep  his  head  at  the  same  height. 

The  device  here  described — which,  for  want  of 
a  better  name,  I  call  the  "  controller  " — I  first 
used  some  twenty  years  ago  on  an  exceptionally 
bad  runaway  kicker,  after  having  used  several 
other  contrivances  which  did  not  have  quite  the 
desired  effect.  I  have  since  found  it  one  of  the 
very  best  means  of  control  and  correction,  and 
I  have  used  it  with  excellent  results  in  the  cure 
of  other  vices  as  well  as  kicking. 

THE   KICKING   HABIT   IS   CURABLE 

Kicking  is  very  properly  classed  as  one  of  the 
very  worst  of  vices  and  yet  I  have  not  known  a 
case  that  could  not  be  cured.     All  that  is  neces- 


58  THE    HORSE 

sary  is  to  apply  the  right  treatment  and  to  apply 
it  intelligently  and  perseveringly.  Some  cases 
require  much  longer  treatment  than  others,  how- 
ever, and  it  is  impossible  to  state  how  long  it  will 
take  to  cure  any  particular  case.  One  filly,  for 
instance,  that  came  to  me  with  an  evil  record 
took  over  three  months  of  patient  training  before 
her  disposition  to  kick  was  wholly  eliminated.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  once  bought  a  four-year-old  colt 
that  had  become  a  kicker  when  being  broken  and 
was  considered  so  bad  that  his  breaker  gave  up 
the  job,  yet  a  fortnight's  treatment  was  all  that 
was  needed  to  render  him  perfectly  safe  and  gentle. 

Many  times — indeed  generally — the  tendency 
to  kick  is,  in  a  large  measure,  cured  at  the  very 
beginning  of  treatment.  But  the  horse  must  still 
be  used  with  his  rigging  on  and  watched  carefully 
for  a  recurrence  of  the  vice,  and  he  cannot  be  con- 
sidered cured  till  a  convincingly  long  period  of 
good  conduct,  without  even  a  hint  of  his  vice,  in- 
dicates that  his  reformation  is  permanent. 

Another  device,  which,  if  preferred,  may  be  used 
for  a  while  before  using  the  controller  may  be 
prepared  as  follows: 

Proceed  exactly  as  in  arranging  the  controller, 
but,  instead  of  tying  the  short  end  of  the  cord 
to  the  other  behind  the  terrets,  adjust  it  so  that 
both  ends  are  of  equal  length.     Have  a  ring  fas- 


CURE    OF    VICES 


59 


tened  to  the  back-strap  of  the  harness  at  the  point 
where  the  hip-straps,  that  support  the  breeching, 
cross  it.  Now  run  the  two  ends  of  the  cord  back 
through  this  ring  and  tie  them,  one  on  each  side, 
to  the  crossbar  of  the  shafts,  being  careful  to 
adjust  them  so  as  to  keep  the  horse's  head  quite 


When  the  Controller  Is  Rigged  This  Way  It 
Will   Act   Automatically 

a  little  higher  than  is  necessary  with  the  con- 
troller, but  not  high  enough  to  keep  him  unduly 
irritated.  It  will  be  seen  that  with  this  rigging 
whenever  he  attempts  to  kick  he  will  punish  him- 
self promptly  and  severely. 

I  have  not  myself  used  this  device  very  much. 


60  THE    HORSE 

usually  preferring  to  use  the  controller  from  the 
first.  But  it  is  an  excellent  thing  for  the  kicker's 
first  few  lessons  in  harness  and  is  rather  easier 
for  the  trainer,  as  it  is  self-acting.  But  when 
the  horse  has  yielded  to  treatment,  so  that  there 
is  comparatively  little  danger  of  his  making  much 
further  fight,  the  controller  is  better,  as  it  is  less 
harsh  when  not  in  operation  and  allows  more 
freedom  for  the  head. 

RUNNING  AWAY 

For  running  away,  unless  accompanied  by  some 
other  vice,  simply  put  on  the  controller  and  bring 
the  horse  to  a  standstill  whenever  he  attempts  to 
run.  The  discovery  that  you  have  it  in  your 
power  to  stop  him  will  have  a  very  salutary  effect 
upon  him  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  his  at- 
tempts to  run  will  be  much  less  frequent.  The 
controller  should  be  kept  on  him  till  he  has  gone 
long  enougli  without  showing  any  disposition  to 
run  to  indicate  that  the  habit  is  cured.  This 
may  take  some  time,  but  the  treatment,  to  be  ef- 
fective, must  be  thorough  and,  as  already  pointed 
out,  the  device  does  no  harm  and  is  not  in  the 
driver's  way.  When  you  finally  do  discontinue 
it,  use  a  four-ring  bit  with  over-draw  check-rein 
and  continue  to  use  it  as  long  as  you  have  the 


CURE    OF    VICES  61 

horse.  He  may  never  run  again,  but  safety 
should  be  your  motto  and  there  is  no  bit  so  good 
for  holding  a  horse.  It  has  also  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  being  an  easy  bit  for  the  horse  as  long 
as  he  does  not  pull  upon  it — and  this  is  a  note- 
worthy feature,  as  you  can  never  cure  a  vice  or 
a  bad  habit  if  your  means  of  correction  are  oper- 
ative at  other  times  than  when  the  vice  is  ex- 
hibited. 

I  have  purchased  and  used  quite  a  number  of 
runaway  horses  and  have  never  had  much  trouble 
with  them.  Sometimes  the  inclination  to  run 
would  show  itself  a  little  at  intervals  and,  more 
frequently,  it  seemed  to  become  wholly  eliminated. 
But  in  the  use  of  horses  on  the  road  there  is  often 
more  to  rearouse  this  vice  than  some  others  and 
I  would  repeat  my  recommendation  that  the  use 
of  the  four-ring  bit  and  over-draw  check-rein  be 
never  discontinued  on  a  runaway, 

BALKING 

Balking  is  not  a  dangerous  vice,  but  of  all  equine 
short-comings,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  intensely 
aggravating.  And  yet  the  old  proverb  that 
"  there  is  always  good  stuff  in  a  balky  horse  "  has 
some  truth  in  it.  Horses  of  superabundant  nerv- 
ous energy  are  the  kind  that  are  by  far  the  most 


62  TKE   HORSE 

likely  to  contract  this  vice.  Dull,  sluggish  horses 
are  not  so  subject  to  it. 

Balky  horses,  though  all  exhibiting  the  same 
vice,  are  of  such  diiferent  kinds — each  one,  ap- 
parently, having  a  diiferent  kink  in  his  head — that 
it  is  impossible  to  tell,  in  the  first  place,  which 
one  of  several  kinds  of  treatment  will  work  best. 
But  there  are  so  many  cases  in  which  palliative 
treatment  is  all  that  is  needed  that  this  should 
always  be  given  a  fair  trial  before  coercive  meas- 
ures are  used.  Use  the  horse  horse-fashion  and 
take  his  good  conduct  for  granted  and  very  often 
he  will  forget  to  balk.  When  he  does,  try  to  fool 
him  by  saying,  "  Whoa  ";  get  out  and  adjust  the 
harness  or  pick  up  his  feet,  one  after  another,  as 
if  looking  for  a  lodged  stone,  and  finally  hammer 
on  one  of  them  with  a  stone,  keeping  it  in  your 
hand  long  enough  to  take  his  attention  thoroughly 
and  perhaps  weary  his  other  leg  a  little.  Then 
get  into  the  buggy  as  if  everything  were  all  right 
and  start  him  up  in  the  usual  way. 

All  this  may  work  and  it  may  not,  but  it  is  the 
first  thing  to  try.  I  have  had  a  great  many  balky 
horses  and  in  quite  a  number  of  instances  have 
applied  no  further  remedy  and  have  used  them 
for  years  with  no  repetition  of  the  vice.  If  pal- 
liative treatment  is  found  insufficient,  put  on  the 
controller  and  elevate  the  horse's  nose  whenever 


CURE    GF    VICES 


63 


he  stops.  Hold  it  up  strongly  for  a  few  seconds, 
then  release  the  pressure  and  he  will  generally 
start. 

Should  it  be  necessary  to  treat  the  horse  still 
further,  proceed  as  follows : 

Take  the  horse  out  of  the  shafts,  strip  off  all 
of  his  harness,  and  put  on  an  ordinary  halter. 
Tie  the  hair  of  his  tail  into  a  hard  knot.     Now 


The  Best  Hitch  for  Tying  a  Horse's  Head 

TO  His  Tail 

run  the  halter-rope  through  the  hair  above  the 

knot,  pulling  his  head  well  round  toward  his  tail, 

and  fasten  by  a  half-turn  and  loop  which  can  be 

undone  by  a  single  jerk.     Now  stand  back  from 

the  horse,  touch  him  behind  with  your  whip,  and 

he  will  begin  to  turn  around  in  a  circle.     He  will 

presently  get  very  dizzy   and,  if  not   interfered 


64  THE    HORSE 

with,  will  fall  down.  It  is  better  not  to  go  to 
this  extreme,  however,  as  in  falling,  he  may  injure 
himself;  watch  him  sharply  and  the  moment  he 
is  thoroughly  dizzy  untie  the  rope.  Now  har- 
ness him  as  quickly  as  possible,  put  him  in  the 
shafts — and  drive  on.  I  have  not  often  found  it 
necessary  to  whirl  the  horse  in  this  way  more  than 
once  to  make  him  start,  but  in  some  rare  instances 
it  has  to  be  repeated ;  in  such  cases  make  him  turn 
the  other  way. 

One  point  in  respect  to  the  whirling  treatment 
can  hardly  be  over-emphasized — it  is  essential  to 
use  a  hitch  that  can  be  released  instantly  when 
the  horse  shows  signs  of  tottering.  If  a  knot 
is  used  that  makes  quick  release  impossible,  the 
horse  runs  a  chance  of  falling  and  straining  him- 
self badly.  The  hitch  shown  in  the  diagram  Is 
the  simplest  and  safest  I  have  ever  used. 

This  whirling  treatment  is  one  of  the  very  best 
means  of  breaking  up  a  horse's  confidence  In  him- 
self and  It  can  often  be  used  to  advantage  in  the 
treatment  for  kicking  or  other  vices.  The  secret 
of  it — just  as  In  laying  a  horse  down — Is  that  It 
Impresses  him  powerfully  with  your  supremacy. 
It  shows  him  that  you  can  handle  him  very  roughly 
if  you  choose  and  that  you  can  do  so  with  apparent 
ease.  After  that  recognition  of  your  supremacy 
he  has  little  inclination  to  defy  you  and.  If  al- 


CURE    OF    VICES  65 

ways  handled  quietly  and  with  no  display  of  tem- 
per or  irritability,  will  soon  come  to  yield  the 
cheerful  and  unquestioning  obedience  that  is  so 
essential. 

There  are  very  few  horses  that  will  not  amply 
repay  the  time  and  trouble  necessary  to  cure  them 
of  their  vices ;  in  many  cases  it  is  making  a  useful 
and  valuable  animal  of  one  that  was  formerly 
worthless.  But  the  wise  horseman  will  always 
bear  it  in  mind  that  prevention  is  better  than  cure, 
for,  although  accidents  will  sometimes  happen  even 
with  the  best  of  management,  the  great  majority 
of  horses  that  have  vices  would  never  have  con- 
tracted them  if  handled  rightly  from  the  first. 

Many  bad  habits  are  formed  when  the  horse  is 
newly  broken  and  beginning  to  work.  It  is  then 
that  he  is  getting  his  ideas  of  what  he  can  and 
cannot  do,  and  double  vigilance  is  necessary  to 
see  that  he  does  not  make  experiments  in  inde- 
pendence that  will  lead  to  vice. 

Too  often,  the  young  horse  is  trusted  too  much, 
he  is  left  standing,  tied  with  a  weak  hitch-rope  or 
perhaps  without  hitching  at  all,  used  by  inexperi- 
enced drivers  or  be  driven  in  a  ram-shackle  wagon, 
with  an  old  harness  tied  together  with  strings. 
Vice  can  almost  always  be  traced  to  bad  manage- 
ment of  some  kind.  It  is  a  good  while  before  a 
young  horse  is  fit  to  be  used  and  trusted  like  an 


66  THE    HORSE 

old  one,  and  if  this  fact  could  be  constantly  borne 
in  mind  by  those  who  use  him,  the  proportion  of 
accidents  that  happen  and  vices  that  are  formed 
would  be  much  less. 


CHAPTER   V 

SHYING 

SHYING  is  a  very  common  as  well  as  an 
extremely  objectionable  vice,  completely 
spoiling  many  otherwise  valuable  horses — 
for  there  is  neither  pleasure  nor  safety  in  driving 
a  bad  shyer.  It  is  first  caused  by  genuine  fear. 
In  the  majority  of  instances — in  fact,  always,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  nervous  or  hysterical  shyers — 
had  the  horse,  from  the  first,  been  gradually  ac- 
customed to  the  objects  he  fears  and  shown  that 
they  would  not  hurt  him,  he  would  never  have  be- 
come a  shyer. 

The  average  colt,  when  being  broken  to  har- 
ness, is  constantly  meeting  some  object  that — in 
greater  or  less  degree,  according  to  his  nature — 
excites  his  fear.  Perhaps  it  is  only  a  stump  or 
a  rock  or  a  log  by  the  roadside  half  concealed 
by  the  grass.  A  good  horseman,  in  such  a  case, 
will  be  very  patient,  allowing  the  colt  to  stand 
still  for  a  moment  and  look  at  the  object  of  his 
fear,  then  moving  him  gradually  a  little  nearer 
and  convincing  him  that  his  fear  is  unfounded. 

67 


68  THE    HORSE 

Every  such  experience  renders  the  colt  less  nerv- 
ous and  timid,  for  it  increases  his  confidence  in 
his  driver. 

But,  too  often,  the  essential  factors  in  the  case 
are  overlooked.  The  driver,  knowing  that  the 
colt  does  not  fear  such  objects  in  the  pasture, 
foolishly  assumes  that  he,  therefore,  ought  not  to 
fear  them  in  the  road — forgetting  the  entire  nov- 
elty of  the  position  and  that,  in  the  strangeness 
of  his  new  experiences,  the  colt's  excited  imagina- 
tion readily  transforms  the  log  or  stump  into  some 
great  beast,  ready  to  spring  upon  him.  So  the 
colt,  instead  of  being  shown  his  error  in  a  ra- 
tional way,  is  presently  engaged  in  a  foolish  tussle 
with  his  driver,  and  it  is  ten  to  one  that,  before  it 
is  over,  the  colt,  in  some  measure,  has  got  the  best 
of  it.  This  needless  tussle  and  his  partial  victory 
he  will  afterward  associate  with  the  object  of  his 
fear,  and  he  will  not  only  feign  terror  of  it  when 
he  has  really  got  over  his  fear,  but  will  be  more 
likely  to  find  fresh  objects  to  sh}^  at. 

To  cure  the  shyer  when  his  fear  is  genuine, 
there  is  no  way  but  to  do  what  should  have  been 
done  in  the  first  place;  begin  all  over  again,  be 
both  patient  and  resolute,  and  properly  accustom 
him  to  all  objects  that  he  fears.  When  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  is  only  feigning  terror,  coercive  meas- 
ures must  be  used,  for  it  is  absolutely  necessary 


SHYING  69 

that,  in  some  way  or  other,  the  horse  be  got  by 
the  object.  He  will  never  be  good  for  anything 
if  allowed  to  turn  around  and  retrace  his  steps. 
In  many  cases  I  have  found  a  good  whalebone  whip 
and  a  four-ring  bit  all  the  adjuncts  that  were 
necessary.  But  generally  speaking,  the  control- 
ler, described  in  the  last  chapter,  affords  the  best 
means  of  treatment,  for  the  horse  is  obliged  to 
stand  perfectly  still  when  its  pressure  is  applied, 
and  when  it  is  released  he  is  frequently  ready  to 
pass  quietly  by.  With  reference  to  the  whip,  its 
use  is  so  often  abused  that  it  is  never  to  be  recom- 
mended except  to  those  who  know  exactly  when 
and  how  to  use  it. 

The  fact  that  the  fear  is  sometimes  real  and 
sometimes  assumed  makes  it  especially  difficult  to 
give  detailed  instructions  to  fit  any  and  every" 
case.  It  is  essential  that  the  trainer  know  the 
one  from  the  other  and  I  find  it  almost  impossible 
to  describe  the  actions  of  the  horse  in  each  in- 
stance so  that  my  reader  can  distinguish  the  dif- 
ference. And  yet  there  is  a  difference,  and  a 
difference  that  anyone  who  has  had  much  experi- 
ence with  horses  can  readily  perceive.  In  the 
assumed  fright,  the  horse  is  acting  a  part  and  his 
actions  do  not  ring  true. 

It  often  happens  that  a  horse  fresh  from  the 
stable  will  shy  at  an  object  that  he  would  scarcely 


70  THE    HORSE 

notice  when  tired.  This  does  not  always  prove 
that  he  is  shamming — nor  is  it  to  be  confounded 
with  neurotic  or  hysterical  shying,  of  which  I  will 
speak  later.  When  fresh,  his  nerves  are  keyed 
up  to  such  high  tension — are  all  on  such  a  tiptoe 
of  expectancy,  as  it  were — that  the  impression  is 
telegraphed  to  the  brain  with  lightning  rapidity 
and  an  involuntary  shrinking  is  the  result.  Later, 
when  he  is  tired,  the  nervous  action  is  slower. 

Although,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  preferable  to 
drive  a  horse  by  an  object  that  he  fears  rather 
than  to  lead  him,  there  are  a  great  many  cases 
where  the  latter  is  necessary  and  it  is  highly  im- 
portant to  know  how  to  do  it.  Strangely  enough, 
this  thing,  which  seems  so  simple,  is  almost  in- 
variably done  in  the  wrong  way.  Under  the  im- 
pression that  the  horse  needs  coaxing  and  per- 
suading, the  ordinary  driver  will  stand  facing  him 
and  grasping  the  two  reins  close  to  the  bit,  walk 
sideways,  constantly  speaking  words  of  encourage- 
ment as  he  endeavors  to  "  work  "  the  animal  by 
the  object.  No  wonder  the  horse  believes  the  oc- 
casion a  momentous  one.  From  his  driver's  be- 
havior he  is  led  to  believe  he  must  nerve  himself 
to  pass  some  terrible  object. 

Now  the  right  way  is  this:  Grasp  the  near 
rein  in  your  right  hand  about  a  foot  from  the  bit. 
Now,  holding  it  firmly,  but  looking  right  before 


SHYING  71 

you  and  paying  no  apparent  attention  to  the 
horse,  walk  on  in  a  nonchalant  way — ^just  as  if  the 
circumstances  were  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary 
and  you  assume,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  your 
horse  will  follow  quietly.  If  your  previous  atti- 
tude toward  him  has  been  such  as  to  win  his  con- 
fidence, he  will  do  so,  for  he  is  taking  close  note 
of  your  behavior  and  is  satisfied  by  it  that  he  has 
nothing  to  fear. 

NEUROTIC   SHYING 

It  happens  not  infrequently  that  people  owning 
highly-bred  horses  are  puzzled  and  annoyed  by  a 
vice — usually  shying  or  bolting — which  is  mani- 
fested only  occasionally.  A  horse,  for  instance, 
is  thoroughly  accustomed  to  automobiles  and  you 
have  driven  him  on  perhaps  twenty  occasions 
when  he  has  shown  no  fear  of  them.  But  on  the 
twenty-first  he  evinces  the  most  extreme  terror, 
shying  badly  or  perhaps  even  bolting  over  the 
roadside  wall.  That  the  fear  is  genuine  is  evident 
to  an  experienced  horseman  and  the  vice  is  tenfold 
worse  in  that  we  never  know  when  to  expect  it. 

This  vice  (for  which  the  horse  is  not  to  blame) 
is  really  an  hysterical  outbreak,  and  though  the 
shyer  of  this  class  may  be  held  in  check  at  the 
time  by  some  such  device  as  the  controller,  we 


1%  THE    HORSE 

must,  in  order  to  effect  a  real  cure,  go  beyond 
any  mere  coercive  treatment  and  look  for  the 
cause  of  the  trouble  where  it  really  is — in  the 
nervous  system.  The  way  in  which  this  nervous 
disorder  operates  may  be  illustrated  by  a  phase  in 
human  nature  familiar  to  all. 

A  boy  is  afraid  of  the  dark,  although  he  knows 
his  fear  is  foolish  and  that  there  is  nothing  to  hurt 
him.  He  goes  into  a  dark  cellar  twenty  or  thirty 
times,  always  holding  his  unreasoning  fear  in 
check  by  an  effort  of  his  will.  But  there  comes 
a  time  when,  his  nervous  mechanism  not  being  in 
as  good  order  as  usual,  his  fear  gets  the  best  of 
him  and  he  makes  a  mad  rush  for  the  door.  He 
knows  there  is  nothing  in  pursuit,  but  he  has  lost 
his  self-control  and  is  in  as  abject  fear  as  though 
menaced  by  a  real  danger. 

The  case  of  the  neurotic  shyer  is  of  like  kind. 
The  horse  has  learned  that  the  object  he  once 
feared  will  not  hurt  him,  but  the  association  of 
ideas  is  such  that  a  slight  effort  of  his  will  is  nec- 
essary, each  time  he  passes  it,  to  hold  his  fear  in 
check.  But  some  day,  when  his  nerves  are  a  trifle 
out  of  order,  even  this  slight  effort  becomes  im- 
possible. 

I  have  owned  and  also  treated  for  others  a  num- 
ber of  neurotic  shyers  and  bolters,  and  they  were 
all  horses  that  had  a  large  percentage  of  warm 


SHYING  73 

blood.  The  trouble  is  not  one  that  cold-blooded 
horses  are  liable  to. 

This  vice  is  of  so  peculiar  a  nature  and  so  many 
horses  are  never  cured  of  it — at  least  during  the 
best  years  of  their  lives — that  its  cure  might  seem, 
at  first  blush,  a  difficult  matter.  But,  once  under- 
stood, there  is  no  trouble  in  effecting  a  cure  and 
the  treatment  is  extremely  simple,  consisting  only 
in  judicious  feeding  accompanied  by  work — work, 
the  natural  and  God-appointed  medicine  that  has 
reformed  more  vices  and  taken  the  nonsense  out 
of  more  horses  and  men  and  women  than  any 
other  agency  since  the  world  began.  I  do  not 
mean  excessive  or  unduly  hard  labor,  such  as 
breaks  the  spirit  of  a  horse,  nor  occasional  severe 
journeys,  followed  by  a  period  of  rest,  but  daily, 
unremitting  work  in  harness  or  saddle  or  even 
light  farm  work,  such  as  plowing  old  ground,  if 
the  horse  is  large  and  strong  enough. 

That  the  reasonableness  of  this  treatment  may 
be  full}^  understood,  let  us  look,  for  a  moment,  at 
the  nervous  system  of  the  highly-bred  horse  and 
the  purpose  it  serves.  This  nervous  system — far 
more  highly  developed  than  in  the  cart-horse — is 
what  gives  him  his  reserve  force,  his  staying 
power.  It  is  not  bone  and  sinew  that  keeps  him 
going  at  the  end  of  a  hard  race,  but  nervous 
energy.     The  common  horse  gets  tired  and  quits ; 


74  THE    HORSE 

the  thoroughbred  also  gets  tired,  but  he  keeps  on. 

This  wonderful  piece  of  mechanism  gets  out  of 
order  in  a  horse  dawdling  in  stable  or  paddock. 
But  give  the  horse  plenty  to  do  and  his  nervous 
machinery  again  becomes  healthy  and  runs 
smoothly. 

The  feeding  in  neurotic  cases  has  also  a  direct 
bearing  upon  the  end  in  view.  The  chemical  ele- 
ment that  nourishes  the  nervous  system  is  phos- 
phorus. Therefore,  when  the  nervous  system  is 
performing  its  proper  work,  there  is  little  danger 
of  giving  the  horse  a  food  too  rich  in  this  element ; 
but  when  the  nervous  system  has  no  chance  to 
spend  its  energy,  the  excess  of  nerve-food  be- 
comes hurtful,  rather  than  beneficial.  The  horse- 
foods  which  contain  the  largest  percentage  of 
phosphorus  are  oats  and  barley,  and  that  is  why 
these  grains  put  so  much  life  into  a  horse.  Next 
in  order  comes  Southern  corn.  Northern  corn 
contains  little  phosphorus,  but  a  large  amount  of 
carbon,  and  hence  it  is  a  sleepy  food,  making  a 
horse  fat  and  lazy. 

The  knowledge  of  these  facts  should  be  turned 
to  practical  account  in  feeding.  In  the  earlier 
stages  of  treatment  the  neurotic  horse  should  be 
deprived  of  a  portion  of  his  oats,  substituting  a 
proper  ration  of  Northern  corn.  Usually  a 
slight  change  in  this  respect  is  enough  to  produce 


SHYING  75 

the  desired  result,  and  in  a  short  time,  as  treat- 
ment progresses,  his  full  ration  of  oats  should  be 
restored.  For  he  will  need  an  abundance  of  life- 
giving  food  if  given  the  constant  work  that  his 
case  requires,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
is  upon  work  that  we  depend  chiefly  for  a  cure. 
The  dieting  simply  slows  up  the  nerve-machine  a 
little  and  relieves  the  strain  till  the  more  im- 
portant treatment  begins  to  have  its  effect. 

PULLING  BACK  ON  THE  HALTER 

Pulling  back  on  halter  is  a  very  provoking 
vice.  It  always  originates  in  the  horse  breaking 
(usually  by  accident)  a  weak  halter-rope,  after 
which  he  will  try  every  new  halter  and  every  new 
place  where  he  is  tied.  Not  only  that,  but  a  con- 
firmed halter-puller,  after  being  tied  with  a  halter 
that  he  cannot  break  and  standing  quietly  for 
weeks  in  the  same  place,  will  suddenly  and  with  no 
apparent  reason  make  a  fresh  attempt  to  break 
away. 

The  first  thing  to  do,  of  course,  is  to  have  a 
strong  halter,  and  the  rope  should  be  of  extra 
length.  If  the  horse  is  then  tied  very  high,  he 
will  soon  give  up  the  habit.  I  have  frequently 
tied  such  horses  to  a  ring  attached  to  the  ceiling — 
though  this  extreme  height  is  not  really  neces- 


76  THE    HORSE 

sary;  a  foot  or  two  above  the  horse's  head  is  all 
that  is  needed.  The  ring  should  be  well  forward 
of  the  head  of  the  stall  and  the  rope  just  long 
enough  to  permit  the  horse  to  lie  down.  If  placed 
immediately  over  his  head,  it  will  allow  him  to 
back  too  far  out  of  his  stall,  where  he  may  kick 
his  neighbors  or  otherwise  get  into  mischief. 

Another  good  way  is  to  have  a  long  rope  on  the 
halter  and  have  the  hitching-ring  exactly  in  the 
middle  of  the  front  of  the  stall,  pretty  high  up. 
Carry  the  end  of  the  rope  through  the  ring  back 
between  the  horse's  fore  legs  and  tie  it  rather 
tightly  around  his  body,  having  the  knot  exactly 
underneath.  He  will  not  pull  back  many  times 
with  this  arrangement.  But  while  an  excellent 
lesson  to  the  horse  is  thus  administered,  the 
method  is  not  very  convenient  for  regular  use  and 
the  single  strong  halter-rope,  tied  high,  as  recom- 
mended above,  is  more  satisfactory  as  a  steady 
thing. 

KICKING   IN   THE   STALL 

If  the  horse  is  vicious  and  kicks  at  any  one  who 
attempts  to  enter  his  stall,  he  must  be  subdued  and 
the  disposition  to  kick  taken  out  of  him  by  the 
methods  recommended  for  kickers  in  harness.  But 
if,  as  is  more  often  the  case,  he  has  simply  formed 


SHYING  77 

the  habit  of  kicking  at  the  side  of  his  stall  differ- 
ent measures  must  be  used. 

The  simplest  method  and  one  which,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  is  as  good  as  any  is  to  fasten 
a  plank  or  timber  securely  across  the  stall  about 
an  inch  above  the  horse's  hips.  With  this  ar- 
rangement he  cannot  kick,  as,  the  moment  he  at- 
tempts to  throw  up  his  hind  parts,  he  is  checked 
and  disconcerted  by  the  plank. 

TAIL  SWITCHING 

This  habit  is  always  unpleasant  and  sometimes 
very  dangerous,  as  some  horses  will  throw  their 
tails  clear  over  the  reins  and  then  kick  or  run  or 
both.  The  best  plan  is  to  tie  down  the  horse's 
tail  whenever  he  is  driven  and  keep  this  up  for 
several  months,  if  necessar}^,  until  he  forgets  the 
Jiabit.  Make  a  few  strands  of  hair  on  the  inside 
of  his  tail  into  a  braid  about  the  size  of  a  clothes- 
line and  finish  it  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  not 
come  undone.  Pass  a  shoe-string  through  this 
braid  and  tie  it  firmly  to  the  breeching.  This  ar- 
rangement will  effectually  stop  the  switching  and 
is  so  inconspicuous  that  the  majority  of  people 
will  not  notice  it.  This  scheme  is  applicable  in 
all  cases  where  tail-switching  is  strongly  estab- 
lished. 


78  THE    HORSE 

Make  it  a  point  also  to  be  very  quiet  and  gentle 
with  the  animals  that  have  this  habit,  both  in  the 
stable  and  when  using  them.  Be  deliberate  in 
your  movements  and  do  not  speak  to  the  horse 
loudly  or  harshly.  Tail  switching  indicates  a 
nervous  irritability,  and  the  less  that  is  done  to 
rouse  this,  the  quicker  will  be  the  cure.  A  few 
years  ago  I  bought  a  young  mare  who  had  the 
habit  and  in  a  few  months  she  got  entirely  over 
it  with  no  treatment  whatever,  except  using  her 
gently  and  "  horse  fashion." 

The  methods  I  have  here  recommended  for  the 
cure  of  different  vices  are  those  which  I  have  found 
the  best  and  most  efficacious ;  they  are  simple  and 
can  be  applied  by  any  one  else  as  well  as  myself. 
If  carefully  studied  they  will,  I  think,  furnish  the 
key  to  the  treatment  for  the  cure  of  any  that  are 
not  mentioned  here.  But  however  carefully  I 
may  explain  their  working  and  the  principle  on 
which  they  depend,  much  after  all  must  depend  on 
the  trainer  and  I  feel  that  I  cannot  urge  too 
strongly  or  too  frequently  upon  my  reader  the 
necessity  for  patience,  resolution,  and  self-con- 
trol. 


CHAPTER   VI 

STABLING   AND   FEEDING 

COMPARATIVELY  few  of  those  who  own 
horses  build  their  stables  new  from  the 
start,  with  all  the  features  that  may  be 
most  desirable  for  the  purpose;  the  majority  are 
constrained  to  keep  their  horses  in  such  buildings 
as  they  may  chance  to  have.  In  the  matter  of 
stabling,  therefore,  I  shall  mention  only  the  points 
of  most  importance. 

For  its  chief  requisites  the  stable  should  be 
light,  warm,  and  dry,  with  means  for  extra  ventila- 
tion when  needed.  All  these  features  can  be  had 
in  any  ordinary  barn  and  do  not  necessitate  much 
expense;  costly  stable  appointments  do  not  add 
to  the  comfort  of  the  horse  and  are  always  a  sec- 
ondary consideration.  It  is  exceedingly  desirable 
to  have  box  stalls  if  space  will  permit.  Indeed,  so 
highly  do  I  value  them  that  in  many  instances  I 
have  had  them  built  at  the  expense  of  space  that 
was  needed  for  other  things.  Of  course,  horses 
can  be  kept  successfully  in  standing  stalls,  but 
box  stalls  are  to  be  preferred  when  they  can  be 
had. 

79 


80  THE    HORSE 

The  box  stall  should  be  ten  feet  square  and  may 
be  built  with  or  without  a  floor,  as  is  most  con- 
venient. In  either  case,  its  bottom  should  be 
filled  to  the  depth  of  from  four  to  six  inches  with 
fine  gravel  or  coarse  sand,  which  should  be  re- 
plenished from  time  to  time,  and  above  this  a  layer 
of  straw  or  other  litter  should  be  spread  at  night. 
A  certain  amount  of  the  sand  will  be  taken  up 
every  time  the  stall  is  cleaned;  this  should  be  re- 
placed with  fresh  sand.  In  this  way  the  sand 
never  becomes  foul  and  it  forms  the  best  of  all 
bottoms  for  box  stalls.  It  is  pleasant  for  the 
horse  to  stand  on  and  keeps  his  feet  In  fine, 
healthy  condition.  This  feature  alone  makes  the 
box  stall  worth  while,  even  if  it  had  no  other  ad- 
vantages. 

The  standing  stall,  on  the  other  hand,  should 
always  have  a  floor.  I  know  that  some  very  good 
authorities  recommend  an  earth  floor,  rather  than 
a  wooden  one,  as  being  easier  to  stand  on  and 
furnishing  needed  moisture  for  the  feet,  and 
theoretically  this  is  all  right.  But  in  actual 
practice  the  horse  invariably  wears  out  and  paws 
away  a  hollow  place  where  his  fore  feet  stand  and 
his  hind  feet  are  almost  certain  to  be  much  of  the 
time  in  a  quagmire  of  dung. 

A  wealthy  amateur  who  had  just  purchased  a 
farm  and  had  asked  me  some  advice  about  his 


STABLING    AND    FEEDING  81 

stables  took  exception  to  my  recommendation 
that  the  standing  stalls  have  floors.  "  Floors 
are  wrong  in  principle,"  he  said,  "  and  so  must 
be  wrong  in  practice  " ;  and  he  had  his  stalls  built 
without  them.  In  less  than  a  month  from  the 
time  they  were  first  used  they  were  in  such  condi- 
tion that  he  was  obliged  to  have  floors  put  in. 
The  same  thing  has  doubtless  happened  in  many 
other  instances  and  simply  goes  to  show  that  a 
thing  may  be  absolutely  right  in  theory  and  yet 
not  work  out  well  in  practice. 

I  have  used  both  standing  and  box  stalls  all  my 
life,  and  on  most  farms  it  will  be  generally  most 
convenient  to  have  both.  The  special  desirability 
of  the  box  stall  is  for  growing  colts  and  for  horses 
that  are  not  used  regularly.  For  horses  that  are 
used  every  day  the  standing  stall  is  more  con- 
venient and  serves  every  purpose. 

In  feeding,  no  hard  and  fast  rules  can  be  laid 
down;  both  kind  and  quantity  must  be  according 
to  circumstances  and  the  judgment  of  the  feeder. 
A  great  many  horses  are  injured  by  being  fed  too 
generously  when  idle,  or  comparatively  so,  just 
as  a  great  many  are  hurt  by  being  worked  or 
driven  hard  on  light  rations.  Moreover,  certain 
grains  are  more  available  than  others  in  almost 
every  locality  and  this,  too,  must  be  considered 
in  feeding.     Upon  my  own  land,  for  instance,  oats 


82  THE    HORSE 

are  an  uncertain  crop,  while  barley  does  well  and 
I  have  found  the  latter,  fed  in  proper  quantities, 
an  excellent  substitute  for  oats — though  nothing, 
in  my  opinion,  is  quite  as  good  as  oats  for  hard 
work,  whether  fast  or  slow.  On  the  other  hand 
oats,  splendid  feed  as  they  are,  are  not  as  good  as 
corn  and  bran  for  horses  that  are  little  used.  In 
fact,  conditions  must  always  be  considered  in 
feeding.  It  may  be  of  help  to  the  reader,  how- 
ever, to  know  the  feeds  that  I  have  found  the  best 
under  these  conditions  which  more  ordinarily 
obtain. 

(1)  If  a  horse  is  doing  excessively  hard  work, 
whether  fast  or  slow,  feed  a  heavy  ration  of  oats 
and  no  other  grain.  There  is  little  danger  of 
feeding  too  much.  If  he  can  rest  on  Sunday,  give 
him,  on  Saturday  evening,  a  bran-mash  instead  of 
his  oats. 

(2)  If  a  horse  is  standing  idle  a  great  deal  of 
the  time,  feed  him  little  or  no  oats  or  whole  corn, 
but  feed  bran,  with  a  little  corn-meal  mixed  with 
it — one  part  of  corn-meal  to  two  or  three  parts 
of  bran,  according  to  conditions. 

(3)  For  old  horses,  especially  if  out  of  condi- 
tion, feed  a  mixture  of  one  quart  each  of  corn- 
meal,  bran,  and  molasses.  This  ration  may  be  fed 
at  night  and  at  morning  and  if  the  horse  is  work- 
ing, feed  oats  at  noon.     It  is  best  to  begin  with  a 


STABLING    AND    FEEDING  83 

smaller  quantity  of  molasses — say,  a  pint — and 
work  up  gradually  to  a  quart. 

There  is  nothing  equal  to  molasses  for  getting  a 
run-down  horse  in  condition  and  for  this  purpose 
it  may  often  be  fed  to  young  horses  as  well  as  old. 

(4)  For  horses  used  under  all  ordinary  condi- 
tions feed  corn  in  the  morning,  oats  at  noon,  and 
oats  at  night.  Two  quarts  of  shelled  corn  are 
enough,  and  the  oat  ration  may  range  from  two 
quarts  to  four  quarts  at  a  feed,  according  to  the 
amount  of  work  the  horse  is  doing. 

For  forage,  good,  sweet  hay  must  be  the  main 
dependence.  As  a  general  thing,  too  much  hay  is 
fed  to  road-horses,  especially  in  the  country. 
From  ten  to  eighteen  pounds,  according  to  the 
horse  and  the  grain  he  is  getting,  is  enough;  per- 
haps twelve  pounds  would  more  often  prove  the 
right  quantity  than  any  other.  But  it  must  be 
rememxbered  that  will  be  sufficient  only  when  he  is 
receiving  a  good  grain  ration;  when  only  a  little 
grain  is  fed,  the  hay  ration  must  be  much  greater. 
If  hay  is  only  sweet  and  nicely  cured,  I  have  never 
been  able  to  discover  that  its  coarseness  or  fineness 
made  the  slightest  difference.  Hay  that  is  mowed 
rather  late — say,  just  as  it  is  going  out  of  bloom 
— is  better  for  horses  than  that  which  is  mowed 
earlier. 

Good,  bright  corn-fodder,  run  through  a  cut- 


84  THE   HORSE 

ting  machine,  also  makes  a  fine  forage  feed  for 
horses,  equal,  under  right  conditions,  to  the  best 
hay  and  often  better  relished.  Fodder  containing 
smut,  however,  should  never  be  fed  to  horses.  In 
parts  of  the  Southern  States  the  leaves  are 
stripped  from  the  stalk  and  cured  by  themselves. 
As  this  fodder  contains  no  ears  it  is,  of  course,  al- 
ways entirely  free  from  smut  and,  as  a  forage  feed 
for  horses,  it  has  no  superior. 

Do  not  forget  that  water  is  as  important  for 
horses  as  feed  and  that,  however  well  you  may 
feed,  your  horses  will  not  do  well  if  they  do  not 
have  what  water  they  want  and  have  it  regularly. 
They  should  be  watered  three  times  a  day.  Salt 
is  also  an  important  thing,  though,  if  a  horse  has 
it  always  by  him,  he  will  consume  only  a  little,  A 
lump  of  rock  salt  should  be  kept  always  in  the 
manger. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE  COLT^S  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING 

OUR  care  in  the  development  of  the  colt 
should  begin  before  he  is  foaled.  His 
dam  should  be  generously  fed,  have  a  com- 
fortable stable  (a  box  stall  whenever  practicable), 
and  plenty  of  exercise.  The  work  to  which  she  is 
put,  whether  on  the  farm  or  the  road,  should  be  as 
regular  as  possible.  It  should  not  be  unduly 
severe,  however,  nor  too  long  continued  at  a  time. 
If  she  has  to  pull  a  load,  care  should  be  taken  to 
have  her  harnessed  properly,  so  that  the  traces, 
pole,  or  shafts  do  not  press  too  much  against  her 
sides.  But  any  inconvenience  that  this  may  in- 
volve should  not  prevent  her  being  used;  exercise 
is  essential  and,  if  properly  safeguarded,  will 
cause  no  bad  results.  Often  my  own  mares  have 
been  used  almost  to  the  very  day  of  foaling. 

But,  after  foaling,  the  best  thing  for  both  mare 
and  foal  is  to  cease  work  and  turn  them  out  in 
some  good  pasture  where  there  is  water.  The 
mare  will  give  more  milk  and  the  foal  will  do  better 
in  this  way  than  any  other — so  much  better,  in 

85 


86  THE    HORSE 

fact,  that  nothing  but  necessity  should  ever  pre- 
vent its  being  done.  If  it  is  really  necessary  to 
use  the  mare,  a  roomy  box  stall  should  be  provided 
where  the  colt  may  remain  during  his  dam's  ab- 
sence. This  box  stall  should  not  be  a  ramshackle 
affair  that  the  colt  will  try  to  get  out  of  or  in 
which  he  can  get  tangled  up  in  any  way.  It  should 
be  strong  and  the  sides  both  smooth  and  high.  If 
two  colts  are  being  raised  at  the  same  time,  both 
can  be  confined  in  the  same  stall.  They  will  be 
quieter  and  better  contented — and  therefore  will 
do  better — than  one  alone. 

If  the  mare  is  worked,  she  should  be  generously 
fed — and  even  if  she  is  not,  it  often  pays  to  give 
her  some  grain.  If  she  is  not  bred  again  and  is 
running  in  pasture,  she  may  do  very  well  and  give 
plenty  of  milk  on  grass  alone,  provided,  of  course, 
that  the  grass  is  abundant  and  of  good  quality. 
But  if,  as  is  commonly  done,  she  is  immediately 
bred  again,  the  feeding  is  of  increased  importance 
and  should  never  be  neglected  when  it  seems  to  be 
needed,  for  she  is  performing  the  double  duty  of 
feeding  the  foal  at  her  side  and  the  foal  she  is 
carrying. 

It  is  an  excellent  plan  to  give  the  mare  her  oats 
in  such  a  way  that  the  colt  can  get  his  nose  into 
the  manger.  In  this  way  he  will  soon  learn  to  eat 
with  her.     The  foolish  business  of  "  teaching  him 


THE    COLTS    TRAINING  87 

to  eat "  will  be  done  away  with  and  he  will  be  in 
better  shape  for  weaning  when  the  time  comes 
for  it. 

In  this  latter  operation  I  need  hardly  say  that 
separating  the  mare  and  colt  by  the  length  of  a 
stable  or  the  area  of  a  barn-yard  where,  though 
out  of  each  other's  sight,  they  can  still  hear  and 
recognize  each  other's  voices  is,  of  all  ways,  the 
worst.  It  is  an  unhorsemanlike  performance  and 
subjects  both  mare  and  colt  to  a  great  deal  of 
needless  uneasiness  and  worry.  The  way  com- 
monly followed  by  good  horsemen  is  to  place  them 
at  once  so  far  apart  that  they  can  not,  by  any 
possibility,  hear  each  other's  cries.  On  a  great 
many  farms,  however,  either  from  lack  of  suitable 
buildings  or  some  other  reason,  this  is  not  prac- 
ticable. 

A  method  that  I  have  found  very  satisfactory  in 
a  great  many  cases  is  to  use  the  mare  frequently 
during  the  last  week  or  so  that  the  colt  is  with  her, 
leaving  him  at  home,  so  as  to  gradually  accustom 
them  both  to  separation.  Then  I  wean  by 
putting  the  colt  in  a  box  stall  immediately  ad- 
joining the  mare's,  where  he  can  see  her  and  even 
touch  noses  with  her  through  the  bars.  In  this 
way,  though  prevented  from  sucking,  he  still  has 
her  companionship;  neither  of  them  is  exactly 
suited  with  the  situation,  but  they  find  it  at  least 


88  THE    HORSE 

tolerable  and  they  very  soon  become  accustomed 
to  it  and  entirely  contented.  With  the  drying 
up  of  the  mare's  milk  and  her  continued  use  in 
harness,  which  keeps  her  much  away  from  the 
colt,  she  soon  loses  her  interest  in  him  and  he  can 
then  be  removed  to  some  distant  pasture  with 
very  little  protest  on  his  part  or  hers. 

The  care  and  common  sense  that  should  be  ob- 
served in  weaning  should  be  continued  afterward; 
at  the  risk  of  being  accused  of  repetition,  I  may 
say  here  that  in  raising  horses,  far  more  than  in 
any  other  stock,  constant  care  and  watchfulness 
are  necessary.  Colts  should  not  run  in  pasture 
with  older  stock,  but  be  turned  into  a  field  by  them- 
selves. Where  only  one  colt  is  being  raised,  this 
is  not  always  practicable ;  but  he  can,  at  least,  be 
turned  out  with  only  one  or  two  horses,  with 
which  he  is  well  acquainted,  and  thus  the  danger 
of  his  getting  hurt  will  be  greatly  lessened.  As 
a  rule,  horses  are  not  very  inimical  to  a  young 
colt,  even  when  he  is  new  to  them ;  more  often  they 
are  friendly  and  disposed  to  play  with  the  young- 
ster. But  horse  play  is  proverbially  rough  play 
and,  with  companions  so  much  older  and  stronger 
than  himself,  he  is  exceedingly  liable  to  get  hurt. 

In  wintering  the  colt  it  is  not  wise  to  feed  very 
much  corn;  oats  and  bran  are  the  right  grains  to 
use.     A  little  corn-meal  mixed  with  the  bran,  how- 


THE    COLTS    TRAINING  89 

ever,  helps  to  keep  the  colt  in  order  and  does  no 
harm.  From  weanlng-time  and  during  the  first 
winter  I  have  had  the  best  success  in  feeding  oats, 
and  the  two  winters  following,  oats  in  the  morning 
and  a  supper  of  bran,  with  a  little  corn-meal  added. 
It  is  hard  to  give  any  fixed  rule  as  to  quantity,  as 
much  depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  hay  (of 
which  the  colt  should  have  all  he  wants)  and  also 
what  object  the  breeder  has  in  view.  If  his  aim 
is  to  sell  the  colt  at  an  early  age — say  as  a  year- 
ling or  two-year-old — a  very  liberal  grain  ration 
will,  of  course,  make  the  colt  larger  and  smoother 
at  that  age.  But  inordinate  feeding,  even  if  of 
so  good  a  grain  as  oats,  is  not  natural  and  under 
ordinary  circumstances  is  unwise. 

It  seems  almost  needless  to  add  that  the  colt 
should  be  wintered  in  a  box  stall  and  also  allowed 
to  run  out  for  exercise  every  day  when  conditions 
are  suitable.  As  a  necessary  part  of  his  training 
he  should  be  taught  to  stand  quietly  in  a  standing 
stall  and  for  this  purpose  he  should  be  tied  at 
first  and  for  a  long  while  thereafter  with  a  rope 
that  he  cannot  break ;  but  the  box  stall  should  be 
his  regular  quarters. 

The  operation  of  castration  is  best  performed 
when  the  colt  is  about  one  year  old.  I  have  fre- 
quently been  asked  what  is  the  best  method.  I 
am  rather  reluctant  to  reply  to   this  query  be- 


90  THE    HORSE 

cause  in  different  parts  of  the  country  different 
methods  are  in  vogue,  and — assuming,  of  course, 
that  the  method  is  one  of  the  approved  ones  that 
are  practised  by  reputable  veterinary  surgeons — 
it  is  usually  better  to  follow  the  custom  of  the  lo- 
cality. This  much,  however,  can  be  said  that  the 
operation  should  always  be  performed  by  a  skilled 
veterinary  surgeon  or  by  some  one  who  has  had 
sufficient  experience  to  work  skilfully  and  to  know 
exactly  what  he  is  about.  I  am  not  saying  that 
there  is  not  a  choice  in  the  different  methods,  for 
I  think  there  is.  But  the  operator  is  more  likely 
to  succeed  in  doing  a  thing  as  he  has  always  done 
it  and  seen  it  done  than  in  some  way  that  is  new 
to  him. 

Following  castration  the  colt  should  be  kept  in 
a  roomy  box  stall  at  night  and  turned  out  in  a 
good  pasture  every  day — for  grass  is  the  very  best 
medicine  for  him  during  his  recovery.  He  should 
not  be  out  in  the  rain,  however,  nor  in  chilly 
weather,  and  every  morning  and  night  he  should 
have  a  feed  of  oats  and  bran.  This  care  and  at- 
tention should  continue  till  the  inflammation  of 
the  parts  has  subsided  and  the  wound  entirely 
healed. 

The  details  of  breaking  the  colt  to  harness  will 
be  given  in  another  chapter.  When  he  is  old 
enough  to  put  to  some  use — say  three  or  four 


THE    COLT'S    TRAINING  91 

years  old,  though  his  strength  should  not  be  taxed 
very  severely  until  he  is  five — he  should  be  accus- 
tomed to  his  work  gradually,  and,  as  he  is  still  in 
the  formative  stage,  the  tasks  to  which  he  is  set 
should  be  chosen  with  regard  to  the  good  they  will 
do  him  rather  than  his  owner.  In  this  connection 
one  of  the  best  things  in  the  world  for  a  colt  is 
light  work  on  a  farm.  It  tends,  more  than  any- 
thing else  does,  to  make  him  gentle,  for  the  colt 
that  is  accustomed  to  the  swinging  and  rattling 
of  the  plow  whiffletrees  around  his  heels  is  not  so 
likely  to  be  ticklish  around  his  hind  parts  if  any- 
thing happens  when  in  carriage. 

A  year  or  two  ago,  as  I  was  driving  down  a 
long  hill  with  a  pair  of  four-year-old  colts,  the 
carriage  pole,  which  was  new  and  had  an  unsus- 
pected flaw  in  it,  snapped  in  two  in  the  middle  and 
the  carriage  ran  into  their  heels.  Though,  nat- 
urally, they  were  a  little  alarmed,  they  made  no 
fuss  about  it,  but  stood  quietly  while  I  checked 
the  wheels  and  got  them  clear  of  the  wreckage. 
These  colts  had  been  used  in  plowing  old  ground 
and  also  in  harrowing,  though  I  gave  them  very 
little  of  the  latter  on  account  of  its  greater  sever- 
ity. There  is  a  notion,  sufficiently  prevalent,  that 
carriage  or  trotting  stock  ought  not  to  be  set  to 
these  humble  tasks,  but  should  have  all  their  train- 
ing and  exercise  on  the  road.     I  have  never  hesi- 


9^  THE    HORSE 

tated  to  put  my  most  finely-bred  carriage  colts 
to  farm  work,  indeed  have  sometimes  gone  to  con- 
siderable inconvenience  to  do  so. 

Of  course,  judgment  must  be  used.  I  have 
rarely  kept  a  colt  (unless  of  draft  stock)  at  the 
plow  more  than  two  or  three  hours  and  at  the  har- 
row a  still  shorter  time.  The  main  thing,  as  al- 
ready stated,  is  not  the  work  we  get  out  of  him, 
but  the  steadying  and  civilizing  effect  that  it  has 
upon  him. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  COLT 

IT  is  as  true  of  our  colts  as  it  is  of  our  boys 
and  girls  that  in  their  development  and  edu- 
cation a  great  many  mistakes  are  made. 
They  are  misunderstood;  driven  when  they  ought 
to  be  led  and  led  when  they  ought  to  be  driven; 
often  cruelly  punished  when  not  to  blame,  or  al- 
lowed to  defy  us  with  impunity  when  wholesome 
correction  is  needed.  But  there  is  less  excuse 
for  these  errors  of  judgment  when  dealing  with 
colts,  for,  although  we  might,  perhaps,  be  sup- 
posed to  understand  human  nature,  intuitively,  we 
most  assuredly  do  not;  and,  as  equine  nature  is 
less  complicated  than  human,  it  is  easier  to  learn 
to  understand  it. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  pointed  out  some 
of  tlie  limitations  of  horse  nature,  the  horse's  way 
of  reasoning  almost  wholly  from  experience,  and 
how  all  really  scientific  training  is  based  upon 
taking  advantage  of  these  limitations.  In  the  case 
of  the  unbroken  colt,  two  other  things  should  al- 
ways be  remembered:  First,  that  horses  are,  by 

93 


94  ^  THE    HORSE 

nature,  timid  animals  and,  second,  that  in  a  natural 
state  they  are  gregarious  in  their  habits.  When, 
therefore,  we  put  a  lot  of  straps  and  buckles  on  a 
colt,  of  the  use  of  which  he  has  no  comprehension, 
and  essay  to  drive  him,  alone  and  separate  from 
his  kind,  among  trolley-cars,  automobiles,  and 
other  objects  that  would  naturally  terrify  him, 
it  will  be  seen  that  we  are  straining  his  nature  a 
long  way  from  its  starting-point  and  that  we 
should  make  due  allowance  for  the  fact. 

The  best  time  to  break  the  colt  to  harness  is 
when  he  is  from  one  to  two  years  old.  Of  course, 
if  broken  at  this  tender  age,  he  is  not — especially 
if  a  road-horse — fit  to  be  put  to  much  work  when 
his  education  is  completed,  and  care  must  also  be 
taken  not  to  injure  him  in  the  process;  but  he 
seems  to  learn  more  easily  and  is  easier  handled 
than  when  he  is  older  and,  once  well  broken,  he  can 
be  again  turned  out  to  pasture  with  no  danger  of 
forgetting  what  he  has  learned. 

EARLY   BREAKING   IS   EASY   BREAKING 

To  those  who  have  had  much  experience  in  this 
line,  the  advantages  of  breaking  young  are  so 
manifest  as  to  require  no  argument.  There  are 
some,  however,  who  admit  it  freely,  but  do  not 
practise    it    through    fear    of   hurting    the    colt. 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT         95 

There  is  no  danger  of  this,  if  the  matter  is  gone 
about  as  it  should  be.  Of  my  own  colts,  for  in- 
stance, I  never  had  a  single  one  injured  by  ea.rly 
breaking.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  almost  always 
much  harder  to  break  a  nearly-matured  or  fully 
matured  horse,  though,  of  course,  this  varies  with 
different  individuals,  according  to  breed,  tempera- 
ment, and  disposition. 

A  few  years  ago  a  fine  five-year-old  mare,  a 
beautiful  animal,  trotting-bred,  was  brought  to 
me  to  be  broken.  She  had  cost  her  owner  consid- 
erable money  and  he  told  me  he  was  so  choice  of 
her  that  he  did  not  have  her  broken  earlier  for 
fear  she  might  be  Injured  in  some  way.  She  was 
handled  carefully,  but  she  was  large  and  strong 
and  her  temper  none  of  the  best,  and  before  the 
job  was  finished  coercive  measures  had  to  be  used. 
And  if  her  owner  could  have  seen  the  stiff  fight 
that  she  put  up  when  certain  straps  and  rigging 
were  put  on  her,  I  think  he  could  hardly  have  sup- 
posed that  she  was  in  less  danger  of  hurting  her- 
self than  If  handled  when  younger. 

I  might  multiply  examples,  for  I  have  handled 
quite  a  number  of  fully-matured  horses  that,  for 
some  reason,  had  never  been  broken.  As  I  have 
already  Intimated,  if  the  horse  is  naturally  tract- 
able and  gentle.  It  makes  less  difference  at  w^hat 
age  he  Is  broken.     But  It  Is  pretty  hard  to  tell 


96  THE    HORSE 

beforehand  just  how  a  colt  will  act  when  being 
broken,  and  it  is  a  principle  recognized  by  train- 
ers of  animals  of  all  kinds  that  the  training  is 
best  done  when  the  animal  is  quite  young. 

Before  taking  up  the  details  of  breaking  let  me 
lay  down  two  important  rules: 

First — Always  have  all  your  rigging  so  strong 
and  well-adjusted  that  the  colt  cannot,  by  any 
possibility,  get  the  advantage  of  you. 

Second — Make  your  lessons  short  and  of  fre- 
quent repetition. 

The  philosophy  of  the  first  rule  will  be  appar- 
ent, I  think,  to  all  who  have  read  my  observations 
on  the  horse's  nature  in  previous  chapters.  For 
that  of  the  second,  with  the  colt,  as  with  the  child, 
the  too-long  lesson  wearies  him  and  benumbs  his 
brain;  it  is  the  frequency  of  successfully  adminis- 
tered lessons  that  makes  the  strongest  impression 
on  his  mind.  But  remember  that  they  must  be 
successfully  administered.  If  you  have  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion  with  your  colt,  persevere  until  he 
yields  to  your  will;  then  at  once  cease  training 
and  put  him  up  in  the  stable  with  the  impression 
of  your  supremacy  and  his  submission  fresh  in  his 
mind.  Be  very  gentle  with  him  now,  make  him  as 
comfortable  as  you  can,  give  him  a  little  hay,  and, 
as  soon  as  he  is  cool  enough,  a  little  grain.  Then, 
after  a  couple  of  hours,  take  him  out  and  repeat 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT         97 

the  lesson.  He  will  yield  much  quicker  this  time; 
and  if  the  rule  is  faithfully  followed,  it  rarely  re- 
quires more  than  three  or  four  lessons  to  make 
his  obedience  both  prompt  and  implicit. 

Remember  that,  as  a  general  thing,  the  colt 
does  not  fail  to  do  your  will  from  any  inherent  de- 
sire to  oppose  or  defy  you,  but  because  he  does 
not  understand  what  you  want.  The  whole  thing 
is  new  and  meaningless  to  him.  The  average  colt 
will  do  cheerfully  what  you  want  him  to,  provided 
only  that  it  is  made  clear  to  him  what  it  is,  and 
also  that  he  has  nothing  to  fear.  But  there  is  so 
much  difference  in  colts,  both  in  natural  docility 
and  in  quickness  of  perception,  that  all  cannot 
be  handled  alike,  and  if  you  have  a  colt  that  seems 
rather  stubborn  and  slow  to  understand,  your 
cue  is  to  require  but  very  little  of  him  at  a  time — 
and  stick  to  that  little  till  you  gain  it.  Then,  at 
the  next  lesson,  require  a  little  more.  Indeed,  by 
following  this  rule — little  by  little,  one  thing  at  a 
time  and  oft-repeated  lessons — you  may  often 
break  a  rather  refractory  colt  in  less  time  than 
you  could  a  more  promising  pup'.l  if  cruder  meth- 
ods were  to  be  used. 

The  first  step  in  the  education  of  the  colt  is 
bitting.  In  this  matter  some  strange  notions 
seem  to  have  got  afoot  and  some  weird  and  curious 
machinery  for  carrying  them  out.     I  remember, 


98  THE    HORSE 


when  a  boy,  seeing  a  colt  wearing  an  imported 
*'  bitting  gear  "  that  held  his  head  rigidly  in  a 
strained  and  uncomfortable  position  throw  himself 
down  in  sheer  pain  and  desperation,  while  his 
breaker — a  bull-headed  Englishman,  imported,  like 
the  "  bitting  gear,"  and  master  of  stables  for  the 
colt's  millionaire  owner — looked  calmly  on  and 
observed,  "  'E's  a  bit  stubborn,  but  'e'll  give  hup 
bimeby." 

It  is  such  brutal  performances  as  this  that,  in 
greater  or  less  degree,  have  always  disgraced  the 
profession  of  horsemanship  and,  although  there 
has  undoubtedly  been  some  improvement  in  such 
matters,  the  strange  idea  is  still  held  by  many 
otherwise  sensible  people  that  the  most  finely- 
formed  and  delicately-organized  of  all  our  do- 
mestic animals  should  be  entrusted  to  the  care  of 
the  ignorant,  the  coarse,  and  the  stupid. 

Now  what  is  the  process  of  bitting  for?  Sim- 
ply to  teach  the  horse  to  obey  the  rein  and  yield, 
in  a  proper  degree,  to  the  pressure  upon  the  bit. 
To  do  this  you  need  no  "  bitting  gear,"  imported 
or  otherwise,  and  need  go  to  no  expense  beyond 
the  purchase  of  a  piece  of  cotton  rope  the  size  of 
your  little  finger  for  the  first  lessons,  and  for  later 
ones  a  common  jointed  bit,  rather  thicker  than 
usual  at  the  ends. 

For  the  first  series  of  lessons  proceed  as  fol- 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT 


99 


lows:  Take  the  cord  (which,  to  serve  all  your  pur- 
poses, should  be  about  twenty  feet  long)  and 
make  a  fixed  loop  in  one  end  of  the  right  size  to 
go  over  the  colt's  head  and  fit,  pretty  snug,  where 


Arrangement  for  Accustoming  the  Colt  to  the 
Bit  and  Making  His  Mouth  Flexible 

the  collar  is  worn.  Carry  the  end  of  the  cord 
forward,  on  the  off  side,  through  the  colt's  mouth, 
and  back  through  the  loop  on  the  near  side.  Now 
pull  gently  but   firmly   upon   the   cord   and   his 


100  THE    HORSE 

mouth  will  be  drawn  back  toward  his  breast. 
Hold  for  a  few  seconds,  then  release  and  presently 
repeat.  Continue  these  exercises,  with  an  occa- 
sional respite  for  rest,  for  ten  minutes  or  so. 
Then  put  him  up  in  the  stable  and  after  an  hour 
or  two  repeat  the  lesson.  The  object  of  this 
treatment  is  to  teach  him  to  give  up  to  pressure 
on  his  mouth  and  also  to  render  his  neck  flexible. 
The  lessons  should  be  repeated,  at  intervals,  for 
several  days,  until  he  gets  used  to  them.  You  are 
now  ready  to  put  on  his  bridle. 

For  this  purpose  all  you  need  is  an  ordinary 
bridle  without  blinders.  The  bit,  as  already 
stated,  should  be  thicker  than  usual  at  its  ends, 
as  such  a  bit  is  easier  and  much  less  likely  to  make 
the  mouth  sore.  If  it  cannot  be  procured  at  the 
stores,  a  skilful  blacksmith  can  make  one;  in  such 
case,  see  to  it  that  the  work  is  nicely  done  and  the 
bit  finished  perfectly  smooth,  for  otherwise  you 
will  lose  more  than  you  gain.  Tie  one  end  of  your 
line  into  the  near  side  of  the  bit,  hold  the  other 
end  in  your  hand,  and,  with  a  long  buggy  whip, 
make  the  colt  go  around  you  in  a  circle.  Shift 
to  the  other  side  from  time  to  time,  making  him 
go  around  the  other  way.  In  a  few  days  you  can 
harness  him  and  drive  him  about  the  yard,  using 
your  cord  for  reins. 

To  get  a  colt  nicely  bitted  is  an  important  part 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT        101 

of  his  education,  and  it  should  be  carefully  done. 
It  should  not  be  hurried  too  much,  and  if  the  colt's 
mouth  begins  to  get  sore,  wash  it  frequently  with 
dioxygen. 

The  colt's  first  lessons  on  the  road  should  be 
in  double  harness  beside  some  old  and  perfectly 
gentle  horse.     In  this  way  he  more  easily  gets  ac- 


This  Arrangement  of  the  Foot-line   Is  Simple 
AND  Effective 

customed  to  the  sight  of  the  revolving  wheels  and 
the  other  novel  features  of  the  situation.  After 
a  half-dozen  lessons  of  this  kind  he  will  be  ready 
for  the  breaking  cart.  This  should  have  long 
shafts  and  it  is  better,  for  at  least  the  first  few 
lessons,  to  have  a  foot-line  on  the  colt.  This 
need  be  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  same  cord 


102  THE    HORSE 

you  have  used  in  bitting  him  tied  to  one  fore  foot 
before  the  fetlock,  passed  over  the  girth,  and  back 
into  the  cart.  With  this,  if  the  colt  tries  to  kick 
or  run  away,  you  have  the  means  of  stopping  him 
at  once  by  pulling  up  his  foot  and  placing  him 
upon  three  legs ;  it  has  this  additional  advantage 
that,  while  it  greatly  disconcerts  him  and  robs 
him  of  his  self-confidence,  it  does  not  hurt  him 
nor  rouse  his  resentment. 

I  have  known  horse-breakers  to  object  to  it  on 
the  plea  that  it  may  throw  the  colt  down,  but  I 
have  used  it  many  years  and  have  never  known 
this  to  occur  or  any  other  injury  to  result  from 
its  use.  The  controller  (described  in  a  previous 
chapter)  affords  an  equall}'^  certain  means  of  con- 
trol and  on  some  specially  intractable  colts  it  may 
be  found  useful.  But  in  ordinary  cases,  where 
the  foot-line  is  merely  a  safeguard  and  is  not  for 
the  correction  of  any  confirmed  vice,  it  makes  a 
little  less  rigging  to  put  on  the  colt  and  is  fully 
as  satisfactory  to  use. 

A  great  many  colts  are  spoiled  by  the  breaker 
being  in  too  great  a  hurry  to  get  them  into  a 
four-wheeled  vehicle.  The  colt  should  be  used 
a  long  time  in  the  breaking-cart  and  got  thor- 
oughly handy  before  harnessing  to  a  buggy ;  then 
there  is  little  danger  in  it. 

As  a  general  rule,  one  is  liable  to  be  a  little 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT        lOS 

too  anxious  to  get  the  colt  to  work.  Quite  aside 
from  chances  of  overstrain  in  the  case  of  animals 
that  are  broken  when  immature,  it  is  safer  to  let 
the  colt  acquire  his  working  habits  gradually. 

It  is  hardly  possible  and  perhaps  needless  for 
me  to  take  up  all  the  minor  points  in  breaking; 
on  one  matter,  however,  I  think  I  should  say  a  few 
words,  and  that  is  in  teaching  the  colt  to  back. 
I  have  often  heard  breakers  say  that  "  it  takes  a 
year  to  teach  a  colt  to  back  properly  " ;  whereas 
it  can  be  taught  readily  in  half  an  hour  and  I 
have  often  taught  it  in  ten  minutes.  I  may  per- 
haps be  excused  for  pointing  out  that  there  is 
some  difference  between  ten  minutes  and  a  year. 
The  best  time  to  teach  it  is  early  in  his  training, 
before  he  has  been  harnessed  to  the  cart. 

TEACHING  THE  COLT  TO  BACK 

Standing  behind  the  colt,  with  the  reins  in  your 
hands,  pull  back  strongly  but  steadily  upon  them, 
saying  "  Back,  back."  Of  course,  the  colt  does 
not  know  what  you  mean,  and  he  bears  hard  against 
the  bit,  often  with  his  legs  straddled  out  and  resist- 
ing your  backward  pull  as  hard  as  he  can.  In  a 
little  while,  however,  to  relieve  himself  from  the 
painful  pressure  on  his  mouth,  he  takes  a  reluctant 
and    half-unconscious    step    backward.     This    is 


104  THE    HORSE 

what  you  have  been  carefully  watching  for,  and  at 
the  very  instant  that  he  shows  this  partial  yield- 
ing to  your  will,  release  the  pressure  on  his  mouth. 
Now  repeat  it ;  he  will  respond  a  little  quicker 
this  time  and  you  cannot  be  too  careful  to  release 
the  pressure  the  instant  he  complies.  In  this 
way,  in  a  surprisingly  short  time,  you  will  be  able 
to  back  him  any  distance  you  please. 

Now  the  great  difference  between  this  method 
and  the  methods  (if  so  they  can  be  called)  that 
are  generally  practised  is  that,  in  this,  you  have 
shown  the  colt  just  what  you  wanted  him  to  do; 
while  in  the  lesson,  as  it  is  usually  attempted  to 
be  taught,  the  colt  can  hardly  suppose  otherwise 
than  that  his  trainer  Is  trying  to  drag  him  back- 
ward by  the  reins — a  thing  that  he  naturally  re- 
sents and  that  the  trainer  is  manifestly  unable  to 
do.  That  in  spite  of  such  crude  methods  the  ma- 
jority of  horses  do  learn  to  back  is  proof  of  their 
high  intelligence,  for  they  have  learned  what  has 
not  been  taught  them  in  any  sane  or  rational  way. 

And  this  brings  me  to  a  matter  of  which  I  have 
often  thought — the  fact  that  despite  the  crudity 
and,  too  often,  the  barbarity  of  the  methods  em- 
ployed in  training,  the  great  majority  of  our  colts 
grow  up  into  good,  useful  horses,  just  as  the  ma- 
jority of  our  boys  and  girls,  despite  the  many 
mistakes   in   their   training,  grow  up   into   good, 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    COLT        105 

useful  men  and  women.  It  has  been  said  that  this 
is  owing  to  the  grace  of  God,  rather  than  to  any 
wise  management  on  the  part  of  man;  and  in  a 
certain  sense,  this  is  doubtless  true,  for,  by  the 
term,  we  must  understand  the  grace  which  under- 
lies all  physical  and  social  evolution,  causing  the 
survival  of  that  which  is  fittest  and  best  and  the 
ultimate  domination  of  good  over  evil.  But  bad 
handling,  nevertheless,  causes  a  great  deal  of  evil 
that  would  not  otherwise  exist;  it  is  cruel  as  well 
as  unscientific  and  responsible  for  nearly  all  the 
vices  that  are  formed  by  horses.  And  when  we 
reflect  that  the  horse,  our  inferior  in  intelligence, 
is  unable  (except  in  a  very  limited  way)  to  learn 
our  language,  it  is  clearl}^  up  to  us  to  learn  his 
and  when  we  wish  him  to  do  any  particular  thing, 
to  show  him,  in  a  way  that  he  cannot  fail  to  under- 
stand, what  it  is  that  we  require  of  him. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHEN  THE  HORSE  IS  SICK 

'EXT  to  the  treatment  for  the  different  vices 
and  equine  shortcomings,  one  of  the  first 
things  horse-owners  usually  want  to  know 
about  is  the  treatment  of  horses  when  ailing.  For, 
unfortunately,  horses  are  more  liable  to  sickness 
and  accident  than  any  of  our  domestic  animals 
and  often,  in  such  cases,  a  skilled  veterinary  phy- 
sician is  too  distant  to  be  called  in. 

I  wish  to  state,  in  taking  up  this  subject,  that 
I  am  not  a  veterinary  physician  and  the  few  reme- 
dies that  I  shall  point  out  are  simply  those  that  I 
have  found  useful  in  the  treatment  of  those  ail- 
ments that  are  of  most  frequent  occurrence  and 
which,  as  a  rule,  require  immediate  attention.  A 
great  many  of  my  readers  are  doubtless  unable, 
in  many  instances,  to  secure  the  services  of  a  good 
veterinarian.  With  me,  the  inability  to  secure 
such  services  has  existed  practically  all  my  life — 
or,  at  least,  all  of  it  that  has  been  spent  in  the 
country,  which  includes  by  far  the  greater  part. 
For,  as  a  rule,  it  is  only  in  our  larger  cities  that 

106 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK      107 

veterinarians,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  are 
to  be  found.  There  are  so-called  veterinarians 
everywhere,  but  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  ig- 
norant men,  and  of  all  human  ills,  the  ignoramus 
who,  by  sheer  bluff  and  imposition  on  the  credulity 
of  others,  sets  himself  up  as  a  veterinary  practi- 
tioner is  one  of  the  worst. 

Perhaps  a  little  light  on  the  qualifications  of 
these  gentlemen  and  the  basis  of  their  claim  as 
"  doctors  "  may  be  of  interest.  They  are  of  two 
kinds.  The  first,  as  a  rule,  were  coachmen  or 
grooms  in  the  first  place,  and  having  learned  by 
experience  the  remedies  and  treatment  for  one  or 
two  common  ailments,  set  up,  on  the  strength  of 
this  meager  knowledge,  as  general  practitioners — 
in  which  role,  of  course,  they  are  fakirs,  pure  and 
simple. 

One  man  that  I  knew  of  this  type,  an  Irishman, 
had  the  recipe  for  a  blister  ointment,  which  he 
kept  a  profound  secret  and  which — especially  in 
the  treatment  of  spavins  and  bony  enlargements — 
was  by  far  the  best  that  I  ever  used.  He  had  once 
been,  he  told  me,  groom  for  a  well-known  vet- 
erinary physician  in  the  old  country,  from  whom 
he  learned  the  recipe.  Now  this  blister  ointment 
was  the  only  remedy  that  he  knew  how  to  make  or 
how  to  use,  and  if  he  had  confined  himself  solely 
to  making  and  selling  it,  he  would  have  been  of 


108  THE    HORSE 

some  use  in  the  world.  But  flushed  with  his  suc- 
cess with  this  one  thing,  he  must  needs  hang  out 
his  shingle  as  a  general  practitioner,  and  the 
damage  that,  for  many  years,  he  was  constantly 
doing  in  this  line  far  more  than  offset  the  good 
that  he  accomplished  with  his  ointment. 

Another  man,  a  Yankee  farmer,  had  learned 
from  his  father  how  to  castrate  colts  and  in  this 
operation  he  became  very  skilful  and  successful, 
so  that  his  services  were  frequently  sought  at  long 
distances  from  his  home.  Such  success  was  too 
much  for  him ;  it  turned  his  head  and  he  set  up, 
as  indicated  by  the  sign-board  over  his  door,  as 
"  veterinary  physician  and  surgeon."  But, 
though  naturally  a  good  horseman,  he  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  drugs  that  he  used — and,  like 
all  ignorant  practitioners,  he  used  them  pretty 
freely.  I  knew  of  several  horses  whose  deaths 
were  undoubtedly  due  to  his  ministrations,  and  the 
wonder  is  that  there  were  not  more. 

"  Doctors  "  of  this  particular  kind  are  not  now 
quite  as  plentiful  as  they  used  to  be,  owing  to  the 
popular  demand  of  these  days  that  a  doctor  shall 
have  a  "  certificate."  And  so  a  class  of  veterinary 
"  doctors  "  has  sprung  up  who  are  every  whit  as 
ignorant  as  the  older  type — and  possibly  even 
worse  in  practice,  as  they  cannot  boast  even  of 
some  specialty  in  which  they  are  proficient — but 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK       109 

who,  nevertheless,  claim  to  be  educated  men  and 
always  have  their  certificates  framed  and  hung 
up  in  their  offices.  These  certificates  are  from  in- 
stitutions that  no  one  ever  heard  of,  and  in  just 
what  way  they  were  obtained  I  am  unable  to  say, 
except  that  they  surely  did  not  cost  very  much  in 
either  time  or  money.  The  owner  of  one  of  them, 
with  a  candor  temporarily  induced  by  bad  whisky, 
once  told  me  that  he  obtained  it  by  attending  a 
course  of  ten  lectures  which  cost  him  one  dollar 
each,  and  that  he  paid  the  lecturer  five  dollars 
more  for  the  certificate.  Was  that  all?  "  Yesh, 
that  wush  all."  And  I  have  no  doubt  that  most 
of  them  were  obtained  in  this  or  some  similar  way. 

Now  between  these  miserable  fakirs  and  the 
really  trained  and  educated  veterinary  physician 
the  gulf  is  very  wide  indeed,  so  wide,  in  fact,  that 
they  are  not  to  be  measured  by  the  same  scale  of 
comparison.  And  there  is  no  danger  of  mistaking 
the  one  for  the  other;  they  do  not  look,  act,  nor 
talk  alike.  The  fakirs  exist  because  the  regulars 
cannot  make  a  living  from  the  practice  they  could 
pick  up  in  a  country  town,  and  thus  a  great  many 
farmers  who  need  the  services  of  a  skilled  veter- 
inarian are  unable  to  secure  them. 

My  advice  to  all  who  have  sick  horses  is:  Send 
for  a  good  veterinary  physician  if  such  a  one  is 
available.    If  not,  do  not  fall  back  upon  the  fakir, 


110  THE    HORSE 

but  do  the  best  jou  can  yourself.  By  the  use  of 
a  little  common  sense  you  can,  in  all  probability, 
do  better  than  he  can.  In  any  event,  you  are 
not  likely  to  do  worse — and  you  will,  at  least,  be 
saved  his  fee. 

The  first  thing  to  remember  in  home  treatment 
is  that  horses  are  subject  to  the  same  disorders 
as  those  which  afflict  the  human  race.  If,  there- 
fore, you  can  correctly  diagnose  the  disease  your 
horse  is  suffering  from  and  know  what  remedy  li^ 
used  for  a  human  being  in  like  case,  apply  it  to 
your  horse,  using  from  five  to  eight  times  the 
quantity. 

COLIC 

Colic  is  an  ailment  that  almost  every  horse- 
owner  is  confronted  with  sooner  or  later.  There 
is  never  any  trouble  in  recognizing  the  symptoms. 
First,  let  me  tell  you  what  not  to  do.  Do  not 
give  whisky,  oil,  nor  any  kind  of  a  purge — the 
things  that  are  most  frequently  given  in  such 
cases.  The  trouble  is  caused  by  sour,  fermented 
food  in  the  stomach  and  the  gases  it  generates, 
and  neither  whisky  nor  cathartic  has  the  slightest 
tendency  to  correct  this.  Use  your  common 
sense  always  and,  before  applying  any  remedy, 
stop  to  think  of  its  natural  effect. 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK       111 

Bicarbonate  of  soda,  or  common  saleratus — 
a  substance  that  every  householder  is  pretty 
likely  to  have  on  hand — is  a  corrective  for  acid 
conditions  and  this,  as  the  simplest  remedy  and 
one  that  has  a  direct  effect  upon  the  cause  of  the 
trouble,  should  be  the  first  tried.  Mix  a  half  tea- 
cupful — or,  in  severe  cases,  rather  more — with  a 
pint  of  water,  give  this  to  the  horse,  and  repeat 
every  fifteen  minutes.  In  a  great  many  cases — 
probably  more  than  half — this  will  relieve  the 
trouble  and  no  other  medicine  will  be  needed. 

When  this  does  not  relieve,  however,  give  a  dose 
of  the  following: 

One  part  aromatic  spirits  of  ammonia,  two 
parts  spirits  of  chloroform. 

Give  the  horse  about  two  or  three  ounces  of 
this  mixture  in  a  pint  of  slightly-warm  water  and, 
if  necessary,  repeat  in  twenty  minutes  and  con- 
tinue until  relieved.  This  remedy  very  seldom 
fails  to  effect  a  cure,  and  although  I  have  not  had 
much  trouble  of  this  sort  among  my  horses,  I  have 
for  many  years  kept  a  bottle  of  the  mixture  on 
hand  ready  for  emergencies. 

I  should  add  that  country  horses,  owing  to  the 
more  natural  conditions  under  which  they  are 
kept,  are  not  only  less  subject  to  colic  than  city 
horses,  but  generally  yield  more  readily  to  treat- 
ment.    The  city  horse,  that  has  been  long  kept  up 


lis  THE    HORSE 

in  a  stable  and  fed  heavily  on  grain,  is  not  so 
easily  cured. 

WORM-KILLERS 

Worms  are  generally  found  in  horses  that  are 
in  rather  poor  condition.  Nature,  always  a  good 
doctor,  has  provided  a  first-class  remedy — green 
food — and  if  a  horse  has  a  run  in  a  good  pasture 
in  summer  and  is  carried  through  the  winter  in 
good  shape,  he  is  not  likely  to  be  troubled  with 
worms.  If  it  is  necessary,  however,  to  give  some 
treatment  in  the  season  when  green  food  is  not  to 
be  had,  the  following  remedies  are  good:  Keep  a 
lump  of  rock  salt  always  in  the  manger  and  sup- 
plement it  for  a  few  days  by  giving  a  tablespoon- 
ful  of  fine  salt  night  and  morning  in  the  feed. 
This  will  sometimes  effect  a  complete  cure  in  a 
short  time. 

Sulphur  is  also  a  good  thing,  and  a  little  of  it 
mixed  with  the  feed  for  a  few  days  often  effects  a 
cure. 

Tobacco  seems  to  be  a  very  effective  cure, 
though  I  generally  prefer  giving  the  other  reme- 
dies a  trial  first.  A  tablespoonful  of  either 
smoking  or  chewing  tobacco,  rubbed  fine  and  given 
in  the  feed  night  and  morning  for  a  week  or  two, 
is   about   the   right   dose.     For  the   small,   white 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK      113 

worms  that  infest  the  rectum  an  injection  of  water 
in  which  tobacco  has  been  soaked  is  often  a  good 
method  of  treatment,  as  the  trouble  is  freouently 
hard  to  reach  by  internal  remedies. 

When  a  horse  becomes  lame,  the  first  thing  to 
do  is  to  locate  the  lameness.  Often,  especially  at 
first,  there  is  little  or  no  swelling.  But  there  is 
always  heat  in  the  injured  part  and  a  careful 
examination  will  generally  find  it.  If  the  horse  is 
lame  forward  the  trouble  is  much  more  likely  to  be 
below  the  knee  than  above  it — maybe  in  the  back 
tendon  or  ankle  or  foot.  It  is  very  common, 
when  the  seat  of  the  trouble  is  not  readily  found, 
to  ascribe  it  to  the  shoulder,  but  as  the  trouble 
is  much  more  apt  to  be  lower  down,  the  most 
careful  examination  should  be  made  before  com- 
ing  to  this  conclusion. 

There  are  many  liniments  on  the  market  and 
some  of  them  are  very  good,  but  plain,  hot  water 
applied  persistently  and  followed  by  gentle  rub- 
bing is  the  best  treatment.  It  is  of  little  use 
to  do  this  hastily;  the  water  should  be  sopped  on 
liberally  with  a  soft  cloth  and  the  treatment  con- 
tinued for,  say,  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  and  then 
the  part  rubbed  with  the  hands  until  perfectly 
dry.     This  should  be  done  at  least  twice  a  day. 

When  the  lameness  is  in  the  foot,  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  discover,  but  the  injured  foot  will  be  a 


114  THE    HORSE 

little  hotter  than  the  other.  If  the  lameness  is 
caused  by  a  bruise,  the  best  treatment  is  soaking 
in  hot  water,  and  the  horse  should  be  kept  off  the 
hard  road. 

If  the  horse  gets  a  nail  in  his  foot — and  almost 
every  horse  does,  sooner  or  later — pull  it  out  and 
immediately  wash  the  hole  carefully  with  hot 
water,  followed  by  dioxygen — and  be  sure  to  wash 
clear  to  the  bottom.  This  last  is  important,  as 
otherwise  suppuration  may  follow.  Then  pack 
the  hole  with  sterilized  cotton.  If  the  horse  does 
not  go  lame,  no  further  treatment  is  needed,  but 
if  he  does,  the  process  should  be  repeated. 

If  the  horse's  hind  legs  stock  up  from  standing 
too  much  in  the  stable,  the  deprivation  of  some  of 
his  more  solid  grain  (especially  corn)  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  liberal  ration  of  bran  will  generally 
relieve  the  difficulty.  An  occasional  dose  of 
Glauber  salts  will  do  the  same  thing,  but  the  bran 
ration  is  to  be  preferred — and  in  all  ordinary 
cases  is  sufficient. 

It  occasionally  happens  that  a  horse  gets  hurt 
and  that  when  the  inflammation  and  lameness  have 
subsided,  an  indurated  swelling  still  remains. 
For  such  cases  I  have  found  the  following  the  best 
of  all  remedies:  Tincture  of  aconite  root,  three 
ounces ;  tincture  of  opium,  three  ounces ;  spirits  of 
camphor,  three  ounces;  iodide  of  potash  (in  fine 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK       115 

powder),  four  drams.  Shake  well  before  using; 
rub  in  thoroughly  with  the  hand  three  times  a  day 
and  always  after  using  the  horse.  In  treating 
swellings  of  this  kind,  you  must  remember  that 
you  are  dealing  with  a  condition  that  has  become 
chronic  and  that  a  more  or  less  long-continued 
treatment  is  necessary.  This  mixture  is  also  an 
excellent  liniment. 

For  galls,  first  have  the  harness  fit  properly; 
then  keep  the  galled  places  clean  and  treat  them 
with  some  one  of  the  various  gall  cures  that  are 
for  sale  on  the  market.  These  are  intended  to 
cure  while  the  horse  is  working  and,  if  used  ac- 
cording to  directions,  will  do  their  work.  There 
are  several  kinds  that  are  good  and  seem  to  work 
equally  w^ell. 

If  in  any  way  the  horse  gets  cut  or  wounded, 
wash  the  wound  perfectly  clean  with  warm  water 
and  dioxygen ;  then,  if  necessary  sew  it  up  and 
protect  it  in  some  way  so  that  the  horse  will  not 
bite  it.  Then  cover  it  with  sterilized  cotton  and 
change  the  dressing  frequentl}^  Liniments  are  of 
no  use;  the  secret  of  a  speedy  cure  is  to  keep  the 
wound  perfectly  clean. 

For  thrush,  wash  out  the  foot  thoroughly  and 
then  put  a  little  pulverized  blue  vitriol  in  the  cleft. 
Cover  this  with  cotton,  packing  it  in  thoroughly 
so  as  to  keep  out  all  dirt.     In  twenty-four  hours 


116  THE    HORSE 

renew  the  application  and  repeat  till  the  trouble 
IS  cured.  Three  or  four  applications  are  usually 
sufficient. 

The  few  remedies  I  have  here  pointed  out  will 
cover,  I  think,  most  of  the  emergencies  that,  at 
one  time  or  another,  are  sure  to  arise  wherever 
horses  are  kept.  I  shall  not  take  up  the  matter  of 
treatment  for  chronic  diseases  and  structural  un- 
soundness— as  founder,  heaves,  ringbone,  spavin, 
etc.  Animals  having  these  unsoundnesses  can 
often  be  made  very  useful,  and  a  study  of  their 
treatment  is  not  without  interest;  still,  the  best 
way,  when  practicable,  is  to  sell  them  and  let  the 
doctoring  be  done  by  some  one  else. 

I  have  used  some  other  remedies  than  those  here 
mentioned,  but  I  think  it  is  not  necessary  to  take 
them  up,  partly  because  I  do  not  like  to  recom- 
mend the  use  of  drugs,  and  partly  because  the 
older  I  grow  the  less  medicine  I  use.  I  used,  for 
instance,  to  give  aconite  when  a  horse  had  a  cold 
— and  there  are  times  when  such  treatment  is  not 
amiss ;  but  I  am  convinced  that,  in  the  maj  ority 
of  cases,  the  horse  does  fully  as  well  if  given  no 
medicine  whatever.  Simply  make  him  comfort- 
able, keep  him  in  an  even  temperature,  and  sub- 
stitute bran  for  his  more  solid  and  substantial 
grain  rations. 

Your   success   in  home   treatment  will   depend 


WHEN    THE    HORSE    IS    SICK      117 

upon  the  amount  of  attention  you  bestow  upon 
your  horses,  confining  yourself  to  simple  remedies 
and  applying  them  faithfully  and  painstakingly. 
Dabbling  in  drugs,  with  an  imperfect  knowledge 
of  their  therapeutic  effects,  is  always  dangerous 
and  almost  always  followed  by  failure  and  loss. 
I  have,  perhaps,  already  dwelt  sufficiently  upon 
this  point,  but  two  cases  that  have  come  very 
recently  under  my  notice  illustrate  it  so  well  that 
I  think  they  are  worth  relating. 

A  neighbor  had  a  mare  that  came  lame  behind. 
It  was  nothing  worse  than  a  little  wrench  of  her 
ankle  and  needed  no  treatment  beyond  a  few  days' 
rest  and  bathing  with  hot  water.  He  sent,  however, 
for  a  quack  veterinarian  who  told  him  the  leg 
needed  blistering  "  from  hoof  to  gambrel  "  and 
who  applied  an  exceedingly  savage  blister  oint- 
ment. Before  the  first  blister  had  healed,  he  made 
a  second  application  directly  upon  the  raw  flesh. 
The  result,  of  course,  was  a  terrible  inflammation 
and  swelling,  and  when  this  injury  finally  healed, 
it  left  the  leg  round,  hard,  and  permanently 
swollen.  I  advised  my  neighbor,  who  came  to  me 
in  his  trouble,  to  use  the  liniment  above  recom- 
mended for  indurated  swellings ;  it  greatly  reduced 
it,  but  nothing  could  restore  it  to  its  natural  form, 
and  the  mare — a  young,  handsome,  and  valuable 
one — was  disfigured  for  life. 


118  THE    HORSE 

In  another  instance  I  was  asked  by  a  neighbor 
to  come  and  examine  a  horse  that  he  said  "  would 
not  eat."  I  found  the  horse  pitifully  nibbling  at 
a  little  hay,  as  if  he  wanted  to  eat,  but  immediately 
dropping  it.  I  guessed  at  once  that  his  mouth 
was  sore  and,  on  opening  it,  found  the  whole  in- 
side entirely  raw !  Inquiries  disclosed  the  fact 
that  a  certain  "  veterinarian  "  had  been  treating 
the  horse  for  what  he  called  "  kidney  disease  "  and 
the  raw  mouth  was  the  result  of  caustic  liquids 
that  the  ignoramus  had  been  pouring  down  the 
poor  animal's  throat.  Of  course  the  horse  died, 
and  I  could  find  no  reason  to  suppose  he  had  ever 
had  anything  the  matter  with  his  kidneys  or,  in 
fact,  any  indisposition  whatever,  unless,  possibly, 
a  slight  cold. 

I  will  spare  the  reader  any  further  account  of 
such  atrocities,  although  they  are  of  constant 
occurrence.  No  one  who  sees  them  can  help 
wishing  that  the  fakirs  might  be  treated  with 
some  of  their  own  remedies. 

The  moral  is:  Do  not  meddle  with  any 
remedies  that  you  do  not  understand — nor  let  any 
fake  veterinarian  do  the  meddling  for  you. 


CHAPTER    X 


SHOEING 


IN  the  first  chapter  I  pointed  out  that  the  feet 
and  legs  of  a  horse,  as  they  are  the  organs 
of  locomotion,  are  the  most  important  points 
and  the  first  things  to  consider  in  examining  him. 
It  will  therefore  be  seen  that  the  matter  of  shoe- 
ing is  a  very  important  one  and  every  horse  owner 
should  thoroughly  familiarize  himself  with  its 
principles. 

The  first  thing  to  learn  is  the  structure  of  the 
horse's  foot.  This  is  best  done  by  first  obtaining 
the  fore-foot  of  a  dead  horse  and  leaving  it  out  in 
the  weather  till  the  fleshy  parts  have  decomposed 
and  dried  up.  Then  study  it  carefully :  the  thick- 
ness and  form  of  the  walls  where  the  nails  are 
driven,  the  form  of  the  frog  and  the  cavity  which, 
in  life,  contained  the  fleshy  part  of  the  foot,  can 
be  seen  at  a  glance.  This  is  not  only  the  best  but 
it  is  the  only  way  in  which  a  clear  idea  of  the  sub- 
ject can  be  gained ;  no  number  of  diagrams  and  no 
amount  of  printed  explanation  can  make  it  quite 
so  plainly  understood.  The  study  can  be  made 
still  more  profitable  by  obtaining  the  feet  of  dif- 

119 


no  THE    HORSE 

ferent  kinds  of  horses — as  a  thoroughbred  and  a 
draft  horse — and  comparing  them. 

Transfer  now  your  study  from  the  dead  foot  to 
that  of  a  young  horse  that  has  never  been  shod. 
You  will  observe  that  the  foot  is  symmetrical  in 
shape  and  that  it  stands  on  the  ground  level,  with 
neither  toe  nor  heel  tilted  up;  that  the  walls  and 
sole  are  of  strong,  firm  texture ;  and  that  the  frog 
is  large  and  slightly  yielding,  like  the  heel  of  a 
rubber  boot.  You  will  see,  too,  that  the  frog  and 
the  walls,  being  a  little  lower  than  the  sole,  take 
the  chief  part  of  the  horse's  weight,  the  frog  do- 
ing its  full  share.  The  whole  foot  is  a  beautiful 
piece  of  mechanism,  intended  by  nature  for  sup- 
porting the  horse  and,  by  the  elasticity  of  the 
frog,  for  guarding  itself  against  concussion  when 
on  hard  ground.  If  it  were  practicable  never  to 
shoe  it,  a  large  part  of  the  foot  troubles  that 
horses  have  would  be  avoided.  But  as  the  foot 
was  intended  mainly  for  a  grassy  surface  and  for 
only  occasional  use  on  hard  ground,  the  use  of  the 
domesticated  horse  on  hard  roads  makes  shoeing 
a  necessity. 

Next  look  at  the  foot  of  a  shod  horse.  In  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  you  will  find  that  the  frog  does 
not  bear  upon  the  ground  at  all,  its  function  as  a 
buffer  thus  being  rendered  useless  and  a  double 
duty  thrown  upon  the  walls,  which  now  support 


SHOEING  121 

the  horse's  entire  weight.  The  structure  of  the 
foot,  too,  is  somewhat  modified,  the  frog  being 
more  or  less  shrunken  and  the  whole  foot  drier 
and  harder  than  in  the  unshod  horse. 

Now  this  departure  from  natural  conditions  is 
undesirable  and  usually  unnecessary.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  the  object  of  the  shoe  is 
simply  to  protect  the  horse's  foot  from  wearing 
away  and  becoming  sore  on  a  surface  harder  than 
that  upon  which  he  would  travel  in  a  state  of 
nature  and  that  its  natural  shape  and  functions 
should  be  interfered  with  as  little  as  possible.  It 
should  be  as  close  to  the  ground  as  conditions  will 
permit  and  the  frog  should  bear  directly  upon  it. 

Except  in  winter,  when  calks  are  necessary  to 
keep  the  horse  from  slipping  on  the  ice,  the  shoe 
should  be  entirely  flat.  It  should  be  fitted  very 
nicely  to  the  shape  of  the  foot,  so  that  the  walls 
bear  evenly  upon  it  all  round,  except  from  the 
bars  back  to  the  heel.  Here  it  should  be  "  eased  " 
a  little  so  that  the  pressure  will  be  less  than  in 
other  places.  Corns  are  very  likely  to  result  if 
this  is  not  done. 

The  shoe  should  be  so  put  on  as  to  allow  the 
frog  to  bear  a  little  upon  the  ground.  With 
most  shoers  this  requirement  is  the  hardest  of  all 
to  have  carried  out.  The  smith  will  point  out  to 
you  that  the  heel  of  the  shoe  is  thicker  than  the 


122  THE    HORSE 

toe  and  that  therefore  if  the  walls  are  pared  down 
to  their  proper  shape  and  no  more,  the  frog  will 
still  be  raised  a  little  from  the  ground.  This  is 
generally  true,  and  so  the  whole  shoe  should  be 
heated  and  hammered  out  till  the  heel  is  slightly 
thinner  than  the  toe.  This,  if  properly  done,  will 
keep  the  bottom  of  the  foot  level,  elevating  neither 
the  toe  nor  the  heel,  and  will  permit  the  frog  to 
press  upon  the  ground  as  it  should.  The  shoe 
should  be  a  trifle  wider  than  the  foot  at  the  heel 
and  should  project  backward  beyond  the  heel  a 
little — say,  an  eighth  to  a  quarter  of  an  inch  on 
moderate-sized  horses  and  a  little  more  on  larger 
ones. 

This  I  have  found  the  best  of  all  ways  to  obtain 
frog  pressure.  The  means  most  frequently  em- 
ployed are  to  use  tips  (  shoes  that  protect  only  the 
forward  part  of  the  foot,  leaving  the  whole  after 
part  to  bear  upon  the  ground.)  But  the  great 
objection  to  tips  is  that,  as  the  great  majority  of 
smiths  put  them  on,  they  raise  the  toe  and  depress 
the  heel — which  is  a  bad  thing  for  the  horse  and 
fully  offsets  any  advantage  they  may  bestow.  In 
using  full-length  shoes  this  trouble  is  avoided. 
Often  the  method  works  like  magic,  and  horse? 
that  have  been  constantly  becoming  lame  from 
corns  or  bruised  heels,  when  shod  this  way,  show 
immediate  improvement  and  travel  off  like  entirely 


SHOEING  12S 

different   horses.     More   often,   however,   a   little 
time  is  needed  to  work  much  change. 

The  hard  rubber  pads  that  are  made  for  shoe- 
ing horses  subject  to  bruised  heels  often  serve  an 
excellent  purpose,  especially  on  horses  that  are 
used  constantly  upon  paved  streets.  With  them 
the  shoe,  like  the  tip,  is  cut  short  and  the  heel  and 
most  of  the  frog  bear  upon  the  rubber.  This 
gives  frog  pressure  and  also  prevents  concussion 
and,  unlike  the  tip,  has  no  tendency  to  elevate  the 
toe.  But  as  the  pad  is  so  made  that  its  leather 
sole  covers  the  whole  bottom  of  the  foot,  the 
method  recommended  above  is  to  be  preferred 
whenever  practicable.  In  the  country  it  usually 
works  better  than  the  pad  and  often  works  equally 
well  in  the  city. 

In  winter,  unfortunately,  no  device  has  yet  been 
found  for  taking  the  place  of  the  sharp-calked 
shoe — and  this,  of  course,  does  not  admit  of  much 
frog  pressure.  If  more  natural  conditions  are 
observed  In  shoeing  during  the  months  that  are 
free  from  Ice,  however,  the  horse  will  generally  go 
through  the  winter  all  right  with  calks.  Person- 
ally, I  have  found  the  shoe  called  the  "  Never- 
sllp "  the  most  satisfactory.  In  form  it  Is  a 
"  snow  shoe  " — that  is,  its  Inside  edge  Is  bevelled 
so  that  the  snow  comes  out  of  It  readily,  and  Its 
calks  are  made  with  the  center  harder  than  the 


IM  THE    HORSE 

outside  so  that  they  are  always  sharp.  Indeed, 
a  set  that  has  been  used  some  on  frozen  ground 
are  sharper — though,  of  course,  shorter — than 
new  ones.  When  worn  out  they  can  be  taken  off 
with  a  wrench  and  replaced  by  new  ones.  Many 
smiths  dislike  to  put  on  "  Neverslip  "  shoes,  but 
they  are  enough  better  than  the  ordinary  kind  to 
make  it  worth  while  to  insist  upon  having  them. 

When,  as  occasionally  happens,  circumstances 
make  it  necessary  to  elevate  the  heels  to  take  some 
of  the  strain  off  the  back  tendons,  the  purpose  is 
usually  best  accomplished  by  using  a  pad,  with 
the  shoe  rather  thin.  This  is  better  than  a  com- 
mon shoe  with  heel  calks  and  no  toe  calks,  though 
the  harm  that  is  done  by  a  shoe  with  calks  is  in 
its  long  continued  use.  For  a  few  weeks  or 
months  it  rarely  does  any  appreciable  damage. 

The  rules  I  have  here  given  for  shoeing  are,  of 
course,  general;  it  would  be  impossible  to 
formulate  rules  to  fit  each  and  every  case.  The 
important  thing  is  for  the  horse  owner  to  first 
fully  understand  the  principles  involved  in  cor- 
rect shoeing  and  then  to  use  his  common  sense  in 
any  case  requiring  special  treatment. 


CHAPTER    XI 

CARRIAGE   HORSES 

MANY  years  ago,  in  an  article  in  one  of  the 
agricultural  journals,  I  made  the  state- 
ment that  breeders  of  trotting  stock 
would,  in  many  instances,  do  better  to  breed  for 
type,  rather  than  speed  and  that,  while  the  pro- 
duction of  really  superior  animals  of  any  kind  is 
never  an  easy  or  simple  matter,  it  is  nevertheless 
easier  to  produce  beauty,  finish,  and  action  than 
extreme  speed.  I  also  expressed  the  belief  that 
the  supply  of  such  horses  would  not,  for  many 
years,  exceed  the  demand  and  that  they  would  con- 
tinue, for  a  long  time,  to  bring  high  prices. 

Events  have  fully  borne  out  this  opinion.  For 
in  the  feverish  anxiety  to  produce  speed,  a  great 
many  breeders  paid  little  attention  to  such  mat- 
ters as  showy  action  and  beauty  of  contour  and 
there  ensued  a  shortage  of  handsome  carriage 
stock  which  was  keenly  felt  in  the  market.  One 
result  of  this  was  the  importation  of  distinctive 
carriage  breeds  from  Europe — notably  the 
Hackney  and  the  French  Coach — and  a  more  or 

125 


126  THE    HORSE 

less  enthusiastic  movement  toward  breeding  them 
in  their  purity  and  also  crossing  them  upon  other 
stock. 

At  the  present  time,  too,  a  great  many  breeders 
of  trotting-bred  stock  are  breeding  for  type  more 
than  for  speed  and  have  produced  horses  with  an 
elegance  of  finish  such  as  old-time  breeders  could 
hardly  have  foretold.  But,  notwithstanding  this 
increase — and  in  spite,  too,  of  the  advent  and 
popularity  of  the  automobile,  which,  for  long 
journeys,  leaves  horses  entirely  out  of  the  reckon- 
ing— fine  carriage  stock  was  never  so  scarce  in 
the  market  as  now  nor  so  high  in  price. 

Before  considering  the  blood  that  will  best  pro- 
duce good  carriage  stock,  let  us  see  what  a  car- 
riage horse  should  be.  With  the  compactness 
and  substance  necessary  to  pull  a  carriage  he 
should  be  always  a  beautiful  animal,  smooth  in 
build,  graceful  in  contour,  and  with  the  aristo- 
cratic look  that  can  only  come  from  plenty  of 
warm  blood.  His  action  should  be  free,  spirited 
and  yet  easy,  and  he  should  have  at  least  a  reason- 
able degree  of  speed  at  the  trot.  This  latter 
requisite,  which  is  not  infrequently  overlooked  by 
those  who  attach  an  undue  importance  to  high 
stepping,  will,  in  my  opinion,  be  more  and  more 
insisted  upon  as  time  passes. 

The  breeders  of  Hackney  and  French  Coach 


CARRIAGE    HORSES  12T 

horses  believe  that  these  breeds  can  furnish  ani- 
mals of  the  requisite  qualities  and  that  they  have 
produced  many  very  fine  ones  is  beyond  dispute. 
The  overwhelming  majority  of  fine  carriage  horses 
in  the  United  States  to-day,  however,  are  of 
strictly  American  breeding,  nor  is  it  necessary  for 
the  man  who  wants  to  raise  such  stock  to  look  to 
the  imported  breeds.  The  materials  are  already 
at  his  hand  if  only  selected  with  care  and  judg- 
ment. It  has  even  been  stated  that  the  American- 
bred  horse  is  preferred  in  the  market.  The  truth 
of  this,  as  far  as  judging  a  horse  by  his  blood  is 
concerned,  may  be  doubted,  but,  judged  as  an  in- 
dividual, a  certain  type  of  horse  is  preferred  and 
that  type  is  most  frequently  produced  from 
American  blood.  And,  personally,  I  doubt  if  any 
horse  of  the  imported  breeds  can  equal  in  beauty, 
style  and  action  the  best  horses  of  American 
breeding. 

But  without  any  well-established  breed  of 
American  carriage  horses,  where  do  these  horses 
come  from?  And  where  is  the  breeder  to  look  who 
wants  to  raise  horses  like  them?  We  may  reply, 
off-hand,  by  saying  that  a  very  large  number  are 
more  or  less  trotting  bred,  a  statement  that  can 
be  better  understood  from  the  fact,  already  men- 
tioned, that  there  are  to-day  many  breeders  of 
trotters  who  aim  at  type,  beauty,  and  finish  rather 


128  THE    HORSE 

than  speed.  But  this  answers  the  question  only  in 
part  for  the  blood  of  the  standard-bred  trotter  is 
made  up  of  different  elements,  and  certain  strains, 
conspicuous  in  some  and  undoubtedly  having  an 
influence  upon  their  offspring,  are  lacking  in 
others. 

If  we  examine  the  pedigrees  of  American-bred 
horses  that  are  of  marked  beauty  and  finish  we 
find  with  sufficient  frequency  to  make  the  matter 
worthy  of  note  strains  of  thoroughbred,  of  Den- 
mark (founder  of  the  American  saddle  horse),  and 
of  that  most  beautiful  of  all  families  ever  bred  on 
American  soil,  the  Morgan.  These  strains  vary, 
not  only  in  the  proportion  in  which  they  are  pres- 
ent but  in  their  nearness  and  remoteness,  but  still 
throw  on  the  subject  enough  light  for  us  to  say, 
with  but  little  fear  of  contradiction  frqm  those 
who  have  studied  it,  that  the  blood  which  has  most 
often  produced  our  most  beautiful  carriage  horses, 
is  trotting,  tracing  through  thoroughbred,  Den- 
mark, and  Morgan  crosses. 

Of  course,  trotting  blood,  not  having  these 
strains  (except  thoroughbred,  which  is  its  most 
important  component  part)  has  also  produced  fine 
carriage  stock  and  when  it  is  known  to  be  able  to 
do  this  its  antecedents  do  not  matter.  But  in 
selecting  stock  for  the  purpose  it  would  certainly 
be  wise  to  choose  not  only  animals  possessing  in  a 
high   degree,    as    individuals,    the    characteristics 


CARRIAGE    HORSES  129 

most  prized,  but  also  having  the  strahis  of  blood 
we  have  named,  for  when  aiming  at  so  high  a  mark 
it  is  desirable  to  have  as  many  of  the  elements  of 
success  as  possible. 

To  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  the  value  in  this  con- 
nection of  the  strains  I  have  named,  let  us  go  back 
a  little  in  the  history  of  American  horses  and  see 
what  these  distinguished  families  really  were. 
Let  us  first  take  the  Morgan.  This  family  has 
gone  on  record  as  the  gamest,  the  most  beautiful, 
and,  all  things  considered,  the  nearest  to  perfec- 
tion of  any  that  America  has  produced.  Though 
not  as  fast  at  the  trot  as  some  other  families,  they 
were  all  fast ;  they  all  showed  uncommon  endur- 
ance and  stamina ;  they  had  the  points  of  equine 
excellence  and  elegance  that  distinguished  the 
Arab ;  and  they  bore  themselves  as  superbly  as  the 
proudest  of  the  aristocratic  sons  of  the  desert. 

In  every  single  respect  except  size  they  w^re 
ideal  horses.  Concerning  the  breeding  of  Justin 
Morgan,  the  founder  of  the  family,  there  has  been 
endless  discussion,  but  of  this  we  are  certain — 
that  the  family  had  the  prepotency  that  only 
comes  of  ancient  and  unsullied  lineage.  It  is  no 
wonder,  then,  that  their  blood  should  be  found  in 
some  of  the  best  of  our  carriage  stock  to-day  and 
it  is  logical  that  we  should  look  to  it  as  an  im- 
portant element  in  breeding  such  stock. 

It  is  a  pity  that  such  a  family  should  not  have 


130  THE    HORSE 

been  preserved  in  its  integrity  and  that  its  blood 
should  be  so  largely  lost  to  present-day  breeders. 
But  through  the  desire  to  breed  extreme  speed 
the  Morgans  were  crossed  with  other  families  and 
the  original  type  was  very  largely  lost.  Efforts 
are  now  being  made  to  restore  it,  and  if  this  is  suc- 
cessfully accomplished  and,  by  careful  selection, 
the  size  increased  a  little  (all  of  which  can,  un- 
questionably, be  done,  if  sufficient  time  is  taken) 
the  advantage  to  American  breeders  will  be  very 
great.  It  will  be  quite  a  number  of  years,  how- 
ever, before  all  this  can  be  done  and  a  still  longer 
time  before  the  stock  will  be  available  to  breeders 
as  a  distinct  breed. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  thoroughbred  strain. 
No  other  strain  has  played  so  conspicuous  a  part 
in  the  development  of  the  standard-bred  trotting 
horse:  it  is  this,  more  than  any  other,  that  has 
given  him  his  game  qualities  as  a  race-horse  and 
his  "  breediness  "  and  finish  as  a  blooded  animal. 
Its  potency  as  a  factor  in  fine  road  stock  can  be 
best  seen,  I  think,  by  going  back  to  the  days 
when  there  was  no  recognized  breed  of  trotters 
and  when  the  thoroughbred  was  the  only  "  blooded 
horse "  known  and  recognized  as  such,  in  the 
country. 

In  colonial  days  and  for  a  long  period  there- 
after the  blood  of  the  thoroughbred  was  prized,  in 


CARRIAGE    HORSES  ISl 

most  sections,  above  all  other.  In  a  country 
settled  by  Englishmen  this  was  natural.  Other 
kinds  of  horses  could  have  been  as  easily  imported 
and  others  were  imported  to  some  extent,  but  the 
horse  that  was  the  fastest  in  the  world  at  the  run, 
the  direct  descendant  of  Arabian  progenitors,  and 
whose  very  name  had  become  a  synonym  for  the 
qualities  most  prized  in  horse  flesh,  was  naturally 
preferred. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  my  fatlier  always  raised  a 
few  choice  horses,  largely  as  a  matter  of  pleasure, 
but  partly  for  profit  as  he  raised  more  than  he 
could  use  and  those  that  he  was  willing  to  sell 
brought  very  high  prices.  They  were  sold  in 
Newport,  R.  I.,  where  then,  as  now,  fine  horses 
were  in  keen  demand.  With  less  opportunity 
than  now  exists  for  selecting  good  breeding  stock, 
he  succeeded  in  raising  carriage  horses  of  a  very 
high  type.  His  mares  were  selected  carefully  for 
the  type  that  he  preferred,  but,  beyond  mere  hear- 
say and  what  could  be  judged  by  their  appear- 
ance, it  was  often  impossible  to  know  their  breed- 
ing. 

One  mare,  however,  which  he  greatly  prized 
and  whose  offspring  was  always  the  finest,  he  knew 
more  about.  Her  dam  was  a  mare  of  unknown 
pedigree  but  showing  good  blood  and  of  excellent 
road  type,  and  her  sire  a  stallion,  claimed  to  be 


132  THE    HORSE 

an  Arabian,  that  belonged  with  a  circus  that  was 
showing  at  Newport.  Of  this  horse's  claim  to 
Arabian  blood  I  have  no  proof,  but  the  appearance 
of  the  mare,  whom  I  remember  perfectly  and  all  of 
whose  colts  I  rode  under  the  saddle,  certainly  bore 
it  out.  She  had  the  dishing  face,  the  clean  limbs 
and  head,  the  high-carried  tail,  and  the  peculiar 
elegance  of  contour  that  goes  with  the  Arab  race. 

My  father  always  bred  her,  as  well  as  his  other 
mares,  to  a  thoroughbred  stallion,  but  he  was  very 
careful  to  select  a  smooth,  compact,  short-jointed 
one;  most  thoroughbreds  he  considered  too 
slender  and  rangy  to  produce  the  best  carriage 
stock.  He  found  his  ideal  sire  in  De  Wolf's 
Matchless,  a  horse  that  stood  in  Bristol,  R.  I, 
Curiously  enough,  this  horse  whose  get,  consider- 
ing the  diversity  of  mares  that  were  bred  to  him, 
were  of  remarkable  finish  and  many  of  them  very 
showy  in  harness,  was  never  fully  appreciated  by 
horsemen  until  after  his  death. 

I  recall  an  incident  in  the  latter  days  of  my 
father's  horse-breeding  which,  though  trivial,  I 
may  perhaps  be  pardoned  for  telling.  The 
keeper  of  a  young  stallion  of  Hambletonian  blood 
whose  services  he  wished  to  see  tried  on  good 
mares,  came  to  show  him  the  horse.  After  look- 
ing him  over  he  condemned  him  as  "lacking  in 
style  and  too  coarse,  especially  in  the  head,"  and 


CARRIAGE    HORSES  153 

though  he  greatly  valued  speed  at  the  trot,  he  ex- 
pressed his  intention  of  continuing  to  breed  to  a 
thoroughbred  sire.  The  incident  shows  how 
closely  cherished  was  the  old-fashioned  but  praise- 
worthy ideal  that  a  horse  must  be  -fine  all  over  and 
therefore  as  clean  in  head  as  in  limb,  and  that  his 
style — his  way  of  carrying  himself — must  be  fully 
commensurate  with  his  high  breeding. 

Personally,  the  handsomest  horses  I  ever  raised 
were  from  strictly  thoroughbred  mares,  bred  to  a 
trotting-bred  stallion.  One  pair  of  them,  from  a 
daughter  of  Lexington,  were  strikingly  beautiful 
and  would  doubtless  have  brouglit  a  high  price, 
had  I  cared  to  sell  them.  But  these  horses,  it 
must  be  admitted,  were  not  of  the  most  approved 
carriage  type;  they  were  hardly  compact  and 
heavy  enough  and  I  mention  them  only  as  illustra- 
tive of  the  potency  of  the  thoroughbred  cross  in 
producing  "  breedy,"  aristocratic  looking  horses. 

With  the  Denmark  strain  I  am  much  less 
familiar.  But  no  one  who  has  seen  the  superb 
saddle  horses  that  are  bred  in  Kentucky,  direct 
descendants  of  Denmark,  and  who  has  observed 
how  often  this  blood  appears  in  the  pedigrees  of 
our  handsomest  carriage  horses  can  doubt  for  a 
moment  its  value. 

I  wish  now  to  say  a  few  words  about  a  race  of 
horses   which   have   never  had   much   direct   part 


134  THE    HORSE 

in  the  development  of  our  American  stock — the 
Arabian.  Indirectly,  indeed,  through  the  thor- 
oughbred, it  has  always  made  itself  felt,  but  in  its 
purity  it  has  never  been  used  very  much  in  this 
country.  And  yet  it  is  almost  inconceivable  that 
so  beautiful  a  breed  could  not  be  advantageously 
used. 

From  time  to  time  breeders  of  thoroughbred 
stock,  misled  by  the  fact  that  the  Arabian  was 
the  source  of  all  that  makes  the  thoroughbred 
what  he  is,  have  sought  to  improve  the  latter  by  a 
fresh  infusion  of  Arabian  blood.  But  it  was  long 
ago  found  that  the  thoroughbred,  as  a  race-horse, 
was  not  improved  by  the  cross,  nor  is  this  to  be 
wondered  at,  for  the  thoroughbred  being  faster 
than  the  Arabian,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  his  speed  could  be  improved  by  crossing  with 
any  slower  stock,  even  though  it  be  the  same  stock 
from  which  he  originally  sprang. 

In  the  development  of  the  trotting  horse,  too, 
Arabian  blood  has  had  little  part.  The  cross  has 
been  tried,  but  thorough  blood  has  been  the  main 
factor  in  making  the  trotter  what  he  is  to-day. 

Although  always  an  admirer  of  the  Arabian 
horse,  these  facts  led  me,  for  many  years,  to  be- 
lieve that  he  had  already  fulfilled  his  mission  and 
that  his  qualities  were  best  obtained,  in  modern 
times,  through  the  medium  of  the  thoroughbred. 


CARRIAGE    HORSES  1S5 

But  breeding  race-horses  and  carriage  stock  are 
two  very  different  things,  and  now,  on  the  shady 
side  of  fifty,  I  find  myself  reversing  this  opinion 
and  believing  that  in  a  great  many  cases  where 
beauty,  style,  elegance  of  finish,  good  disposition, 
and  endurance  are  desired  rather  than  extreme 
speed  Arabian  blood  could  be  used  to  great  ad- 
vantage. What  is  most  frequently  urged  against 
the  Arabian  is  that  he  is  a  comparatively  small 
animal.  But  this  feature  sinks  into  insignificance 
when  compared  with  his  other  qualities ;  and  it 
must  be  remembered  that  his  blood  has  been  used 
in  the  development  of  breeds  of  horses  fully  as 
large  as  our  average  carriage  stock. 

An  Arabian  mare  that  came  into  my  possession 
some  years  ago  gave  me,  perhaps,  the  keenest 
realization  I  had  had  of  what  the  race  really  is 
to-day — for,  almost  unconsciously,  in  thinking  of 
the  Arabian  horse,  we  picture  him  as  in  the  remote 
past.  This  mare  was  fifteen  hands  high,  white  in 
color  (though  her  skin  was  dark  and  this  dark 
color  showed  a  little  around  her  eyes  and  nostrils), 
and  in  conformation  she  was  nearly  perfect.  I 
have  owned  many  fine  horses,  but  I  do  not  think 
any  of  them  was  quite  her  equal  in  beauty.  She 
was  nearly  twenty  years  old  when  she  came  to  me, 
but  she  showed  no  sign  of  age  and  I  never  knew 
her  to  give  any  indication  of  weariness. 


136  THE    HORSE 

I  cannot  say  that  I  expect  to  see  much  use  made 
of  Arabian  blood  in  the  near  future,  much  as  I 
would  like  to  see  it  tried,  for  in  horse-breeding,  as 
in  other  things,  habits  of  thought  become  strongly 
fixed  and  there  is  also  comparatively  little  Arabian 
blood  in  the  country.  I  believe  that  interest  in  it 
is  growing,  however. 

Meanwhile  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  the 
strains  of  blood  that  are  already  available.  And 
no  one  who  sees  such  horses  as  "  Glorious  Thunder- 
cloud," as  well  as  many  others  of  like  type  can 
doubt  the  ability  of  American  blood  to  produce 
the  highest  type  of  carriage  horses.  What  is  now 
most  needed  is  that  greater  fixity  of  the  carriage 
type  which  can  only  come  through  continued 
breeding  with  only  this  type  in  view — a  result 
which  we  have  every  reason  to  hope  for  in  the  near 
future. 


CHAPTER   XII 

DRAFT   HORSES 

THE  draft  horse,  more  than  any  other,  is  an 
evolution — or,  more  properly  speaking, 
a  modification — of  the  horse  as  nature 
formed  him,  brought  about  by  the  necessities  of 
man  and  his  skill  as  a  breeder.  He  is  a  far  greater 
departure  than  any  other  from  the  original  type. 
For  the  horse,  in  a  state  of  nature,  is  never  very 
large;  he  is  formed  for  speed  and  for  living  on  a 
grass  diet,  and  his  first  adaptation  to  man's  uses 
was  doubtless  in  the  carrying  of  comparatively 
light  burdens  and  in  traveling  with  a  speed  rather 
greater  than  less  than  that  which  he  first 
possessed. 

But  the  draft  horse  has  little  speed;  his  chief 
use  Is  in  the  moving  of  heavy  burdens,  and  he  is 
more  dependent  than  other  horses  upon  a  grain 
diet.  He  is  also  so  much  larger  and  of  such  dif- 
ferent characteristics  and  general  appearance 
that  when  compared  with  a  horse  of  racing  or 
carriage  blood  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  both 
sprang  from  the  same  source. 

This  striking  difference  between  the  draft  horse 

137 


138  THE    HORSE 

and  all  other  types  must  always  be  considered  if 
we  are  to  understand  fully  his  possibilities  and 
limitations.  In  all  other  types,  however  modified 
to  suit  such  different  uses  as  riding,  driving,  and 
racing,  the  development  has  been  mainly  along  the 
lines  of  the  animal's  natural  traits  and  qualities — 
as  his  speed,  endurance,  and  beauty  of  contour. 
Even  in  coach  horses,  which  have  often  to  pull  a 
considerable  load,  this  holds  true.  But  the  draft 
horse  is  so  modified  as  to  serve  a  totally  different 
purpose  from  that  which  nature  intended  and  size 
and  strength,  rather  than  speed,  endurance,  and 
grace  of  outline,  have  always  been  the  chief  things 
aimed  at  in  his  development. 

This  great  change  is  very  often  ascribed  wholly 
to  the  art  of  man.  But  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  the  art  of  man  alone,  without  the  right  en- 
vironment, could  never  have  brought  It  about. 
The  draft  horse  is  peculiarly  the  product  of  the 
temperate  zone  and  then  of  only  Its  comparatively 
level  and  fertile  sections.  In  the  far  north,  In  a 
mountainous  country,  or  In  the  tropics  his  de- 
velopment would  have  been  impossible,  nor  can  he, 
even  now,  be  bred  In  such  regions  and  made  to 
retain  his  standard  size — a  fact  that  should  al- 
ways be  kept  in  mind  by  all  who  contemplate 
breeding  him. 

Now,  In  departing  so  far  from  the  purposes  of 


DRAFT    HORSES    ,  139 

nature,  in  bringing  about  a  change  in  the  animal 
in  which  not  only  the  skill  of  man  but  the  influence 
of  soil  and  climate  have  been  pressed  into  service, 
there  have  been  certain  great  and  unavoidable 
losses — for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  loss  of 
grace,  of  activity,  and  of  endurance  at  other  gaits 
than  the  walk,  have  all  been  incidental  and  were 
not  matters  of  intention  with  those  who  developed 
him.  It  was  simply  that,  if  all  these  things  had 
been  considered,  it  would  have  taken  a  great  deal 
longer  to  breed  him  to  his  present  size,  if  it  could 
ever  have  been  done  at  all ;  and  so,  in  making  size 
and  strength,  always  the  chief  aim,  much  had  to  be 
sacrificed  and  other  qualities  were  lost  along  the 
way. 

With  his  increase  of  size  also  came  a  greater 
coarseness  of  structure,  most  noticeable,  perhaps, 
in  the  feet,  which  never  average  as  good  as  those 
of  road  horses.  But  the  defects  of  conformation 
we  so  frequently  see  in  draft  horses,  such  as  up- 
right shoulders,  long  backs,  drooping  rumps,  and 
ill-proportioned  limbs,  were  never  an  evolutionary 
necessity;  they  came  about  through  the  insane 
striving  of  the  breeder  for  great  size,  to  the 
sacrifice  of  everything  else  and  should  not  be 
tolerated  in  a  draft  horse  any  more  than  in  any 
other. 

With  these  facts  in  mind  we  can  better  judge 


140  THE    HORSE 

what  a  good  draft  horse  should  be.  The  best 
draft  horse  Is  the  one  that,  with  the  needful  size 
and  strength  for  an  animal  of  his  type,  is  most 
truly  a  horse  and  not  a  lumbering  equine 
monstrosity.  He  should  be  active  and  easy  in  his 
movements,  of  a  cheerful,  lively  temperament,  and 
compact  and  handsome  in  build.  As  regards  the 
points  of  his  conformation,  there  is  a  very  com- 
mon idea  that  he  should  be  judged  by  a  different 
standard  from  that  which  is  applied  to  road  stock. 
But  if  examined  critically,  the  well-formed  draft 
horse,  as  shown  in  our  chapter  on  the  points  of  the 
horse,  will  be  found  to  possess  the  same  points  of 
excellence  that  characterize  a  good  road  horse, 
combined,  of  course,  with  those  modifications  of 
conformation  which  the  purpose  for  which  he  is  in- 
tended have  made  necessary. 

To  put  it  in  a  little  different  way,  he  should  be 
judged  first  as  a  horse  and  then  as  a  draft  animal. 
For  instance,  the  draft  horse  is  wide  in  the  chest 
and  his  legs  wider  apart  than  in  a  good  carriage 
horse.  But,  in  addition  to  this  breadth,  he  should 
have  the  depth  of  chest  that  is  a  good  point  in  all 
horses.  He  should  also  have  the  strong  loins, 
short  back,  and  slanting  shoulders  that  go  with 
all  good  horses,  and  his  limbs  should  be  well- 
formed,  clean,  and  flat.  That  they  cannot  be  as 
clean  and  flat  as  those  of  a  thoroughbred  signifies 


DRAFT   HORSES  141 

nothing,  and  is  no  argument  against  the  standard 
to  be  applied,  for  again  the  type  of  horse  must 
be  taken  into  consideration  and  the  limbs  as  clean 
and  flat  as  his  greater  coarseness  of  fiber  will 
admit.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  a  horse,  of 
whatever  type,  should  be  homogeneous  through- 
out, and  the  limbs  of  a  thoroughbred  under  a  draft 
horse  would  be  sadly  out  of  place. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  in  the  raising  of 
draft  stock  it  is  always  most  profitable  to  produce 
the  best.  For,  barring  the  greater  cost  of  good 
foundation  stock,  it  costs  no  more  to  produce  a 
good  horse  than  a  poor  or  indifferent  one,  and  his 
value  is  much  greater.  In  fact,  mediocrity  in 
horseflesh,  is  a  thing  that  there  is  little  profit  and 
no  interest  or  satisfaction  in  producing.  The 
latter  consideration  can  no  more  be  ignored  by  in- 
telligent farmers  than  the  former,  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  best  draft  horses,  like  the  best  of  any 
other  kind,  calls  for  skill  and  attention  to  detail 
and  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  breeding — mat- 
ters that  are  always  of  absorbing  interest  and 
that  bring  pleasure  as  well  as  profit  into  the 
business. 

Breeders  of  road  stock  sometimes  speak  slight- 
ingly of  the  skill  required  to  produce  draft  ani- 
mals, but  every  intelligent  breeder  who  has 
raised  both  kinds  knows  that  this  contemptuous 


142  THE    HORSE 

view-point  is  unjust  and  usually  arises  from  not 
realizing  the  fact  that  the  production  of  the  best 
of  anything,  whether  road  or  draft  horses,  or 
oxen  or  pigs,  or  fruits  and  vegetables,  is  never 
easy.  It  cannot,  of  course,  be  denied  that  the 
road  horse  is  the  higher  type  of  the  two.  But  his 
production  is  also  a  matter  of  greater  risk  and 
anxiety  and  more  care  and  pains  are  required  for 
his  proper  breaking  and  training.  Not  all  men 
have  the  right  qualifications  for  raising  him  suc- 
cessfully. To  a  great  many  farmers  the  draft 
horse,  with  his  lesser  liability  to  accident,  his 
more  even  disposition  and  temper,  and  the  greater 
ease  with  which  he  can  be  broken  and  fitted  for 
market,  offers  a  more  inviting  field. 

I  would  not  be  fair  to  the  draft  horse  if  I  did 
not  mention  one  matter  in  which  he  is  very  often 
misjudged — his  intelligence.  A  very  common  im- 
pression among  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with 
him  is  that  his  tractability  and  the  ease  with  which 
he  is  usually  broken  to  harness  are  owing  rather 
to  a  sort  of  ox-like  docility  than  to  his  ability  to 
understand  what  is  required  of  him.  But  in  a  life- 
long experience  with  horses  of  all  kinds  I  could 
never  perceive  that  the  draft  horse  was  one  whit 
less  intelligent  than  other  equine  types. 

Indeed,  if  there  is  any  difference,  it  is  the  other 
way,  for  the  draft  horse,  being  by  temperament 


DRAFT    HORSES  148 

more  free  from  nervous  excitability,  his  mind  is 
usually  in  better  condition  to  absorb  instruction 
and  to  comprehend  what  his  master  requires  of 
him.  Fire  engine  horses  which,  though  not  of  the 
most  pronounced  draft  type,  are  nevertheless 
much  more  of  the  draft  type  than  any  other,  are 
a  good  exemplification  of  this. 

The  farmer  who  wishes  to  raise  draft  stock  has 
two  distinct  ways  open  to  him  and  both  are  good. 
If  he  has  good  judgment  and  a  right  understand- 
ing of  the  requirements  of  the  case  he  can  select 
large,  handsome  mares  of  unknown  breeding  and 
breed  them  to  a  pure-bred  draft  stallion.  It  is 
highly  important  that  the  stallion  be  strictly  pure- 
bred, a  good  representative  of  the  breed  to  which 
he  belongs,  possessing  individually  good  points 
throughout. 

A  great  many  very  fine  draft  horses  are  pro- 
duced in  this  way  and  it  should  be  remembered 
that,  when  sold  for  other  than  breeding  purposes, 
pedigrees  count  for  little.  The  horses  sought  for 
pulling  a  coal  truck  or  a  fire  engine  must  be, 
individually^  what  is  wanted,  and  if  they  fail  in 
this  vital  requirement,  the  fact  that  they  are 
Percherons  or  Clydesdales  will  not  help  them  one 
iota.  In  fact,  all  geldings,  of  whatever  type  (and 
more  than  half  of  the  horses  sold  in  the  market 
are  geldings)    must  stand  solely  upon  their  in- 


144  THE   HORSE 

dividual  merits,  and  mares  that  are  used  in  the 
same  way  must  be  judged  very  largely  by  the 
sam.e  standard. 

But,  while  this  holds  true  as  far  as  stock  that  is 
sold  in  the  market  is  concerned,  it  is  blood  that 
tells  in  its  production,  and  the  farmer  who  can 
afford  to  buy  pure-bred  stock  on  both  sides  may 
be  sure  that  it  will  prove  a  good  investment. 
Apart  from  the  chance  that  this  gives  him  to  sell 
some  of  his  stock  for  breeding  purposes,  it  makes 
him  more  certain  of  the  quality  and  uniformity 
of  all  his  stock  than  he  can  ever  be  when  using 
mares  of  unknown  breeding. 

In  buying  pure-bred  animals,  however,  he 
should  never  depend  too  much  upon  the  mere  fact 
that  they  are  pure-bred,  but  should  select  them 
with  just  as  much  reference  to  their  points  as  in- 
dividuals as  if  he  were  buying  common  stock. 
Failure  to  do  this  will  surely  result  in  disappoint- 
ment— and  disappointment,  too,  of  a  peculiarly 
heart-sickening  kind;  for  there  are  few  more  de- 
pressing agricultural  sights  than  an  animal  hav- 
ing a  long,  recorded  pedigree  and  yet  failing  in 
the  very  points  that  such  distinguished  lineage 
should  promote.  It  is  true  that  the  progeny  of 
a  pure-bred  animal  that  has  not  the  best  of  points 
will  frequently  revert  or  "  take  back "  to 
ancestors   that   had   better   ones,   but   to   depend 


DRAFT    HORSES  145 

upon  this  possibility  is  taking  much  too  long  a 
chance.  The  reversion,  too,  is  just  as  likely  to  be 
to  inferior  ancestors  as  to  superior  ones. 

Animals  that  are  themselves  individually  good 
and  that  also  trace  back  through  individually 
good  ancestors  are  the  kind  to  buy  for  breeders. 
For  it  will  be  readily  seen  that,  however  good  a 
breed  may  be,  if  care  is  not  exercised  in  the  mating 
in  each  generation  the  offspring  will,  as  a  rule,  fall 
below  the  general  average  and  the  breed  will 
deteriorate. 

It  is  hardly  my  place  here  to  say  which  of  the 
draft  breeds  is  the  best.  The  Percherons  are  the 
greatest  favorites  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  there 
is  any  better  breed.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  there  are  not  others  equally  good ;  other 
things  being  equal,  the  breeder  had  best  be 
guided  in  his  choice  by  his  personal  preference. 
But  before  buying,  he  should  carefully  examine 
the  stock  that  is  in  keenest  demand  for  practical 
purposes  in  the  open  market  and  see  if  the  breed 
of  his  choice  conforms  to  it  in  characteristics  and 
general  type. 

I  would  also  caution  all  against  breeds  that  are 
excessively  hairy  on  the  legs.  Not  only  is  this 
an  unsightly  and  unequine  feature,  but  it  serves 
no  good  purpose  and — what  to  the  breeder  is  still 
more    to    the    point — it    is    unfashionable    in    the 


146  THE    HORSE 

market.  For  the  fashion  in  draft  horses  has  im- 
proved of  late  years  and  the  fancy  teams  that  we 
see  in  the  cities  are  more  trappy  in  their  move- 
ments and  look  more  like  horses  and  less  like  pigs 
or  elephants  than  those  of  a  few  years  ago. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  have  draft  horses  excessively 
fat  when  offered  for  sale  in  the  market.  So  uni- 
versal is  this  custom  that  there  seems  to  be  no 
help  for  it,  though  it  is  greatly  to  be  deplored. 
It  serves  no  good  purpose,  as  far  as  the  use  of  the 
horse  is  concerned,  for  this  soft  fat,  which  is  put 
on  when  the  horse  is  idle  or  practically  so,  must 
all  be  worked  off  and  good,  hard  flesh  worked  on 
before  he  is  of  much  use  for  hard  service.  It 
also  conceals,  to  some  extent,  bad  points  in  con- 
formation, and  a  pair  of  horses  that  are  quite 
deficient  in  good  points,  if  only  of  large  size  and 
closely  matched,  will,  if  excessively  fat,  often  sell 
very  well  in  the  market. 

This  is  not  as  encouraging  as  it  might  be  for 
the  man  who  is  taking  pains  to  raise  good  ones, 
but  he  may  console  himself  with  the  fact  that, 
however  good  a  disguise  fat  may  be,  no  amount  of 
it  can  make  a  poorly  put  up  horse  look  quite  as 
well  as  one  that  is  well  formed  and  "  horsey." 
Nor  can  he,  any  more  than  his  competitors,  afford 
to  despise  such  factitious  aids  as  may  make  his 
horses    sell    better;    condition,    grooming,    close 


DRAFT    HORSES  147 

matching,  and  so  handling  his  stock  that  it  will 
"  show  well  "  all  count.  But,  other  things  being 
equal,  the  reward  is,  as  it  should  be,  to  the  man 
who  raises  the  best  horses. 

All  of  our  breeds  of  draft  horses,  without  ex- 
ception, have  been  imported  from  European  coun- 
tries ;  not  one  has  been  developed  on  American 
soil.  This,  in  view  of  our  achievement  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  American  trotter  as  a  distinct 
breed,  may  at  first  seem  strange,  but  the  cases  are 
by  no  means  similar.  All  through  the  earlier 
years  and  until  a  comparatively  recent  date  in 
this  country  there  were  very  few  horses  bred  ex- 
pressly for  draft  purposes  and  the  majority  of 
those  that  were  needed  for  heavy  work  were  simply 
selected  for  their  size  and  strength  from  the  ordi- 
nary rank  and  file  in  the  market.  Thus  a  great 
many  of  them,  except  in  size,  did  not  differ  very 
greatly  from  the  road  type  and  among  them  were 
often  many  excellent  roadsters. 

The  finest  draft  teams  of  forty  years  ago  would 
look  light  and  of  decidedly  different  type  if  placed 
alongside  of  our  best  specimens  of  draft  stock  at 
the  present  day.  When  heavier  horses  were 
needed,  we  found  in  the  European  breeds  what  we 
wanted,  all  ready-made,  and  there  was  no  need,  as 
with  our  trotters,  to  develop  a  breed  of  our  own. 
There  is  still  room  for  much  improvement,  how- 


148  THE    HORSE 

ever,  and  as  the  true  standard  to  which  the  draft 
horse  should  conform  becomes  more  fully  realized 
by  breeders,  the  raising  of  stock  of  this  kind  will 
doubtless  attract  a  greater  degree  of  skill  and 
attention  and  we  may  reasonably  expect  to  see 
more  representatives  of  the  draft  horse  as  he 
should  be — a  draft  animal  but  still  a  horse. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  TWO-MINUTE 
TROTTER 

WHEN  Lou  Dillon  first  trotted  her  mile 
in  less  than  two  minutes  people  very 
naturally  exclaimed,  "  Wonderful !  " 
But  the  production  of  a  horse  that  can  do  this 
is  probably  even  a  greater  achievement  than  the 
majority  suppose.  And  when  we  reflect  upon  the 
comparatively  short  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
the  trotters  were  first  registered  as  a  distinct 
breed,  and  that  even  then  it  was  composed  of  so 
many  and  such  heterogeneous  elements  that 
thoughtful  horsemen  conceded  its  claim  to  be  re- 
garded as  such  with  many  reservations,  the  exploit 
may  well  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  the  age,  yielding  in  brilliancy  to  none  in 
the  long  annals  of  horses  and  horsemanship. 

That  such  animals  as  Lou  Dillon,  Major  Del- 
mar,  and  other  great  trotters  are  in  no  wise  the 
result  of  chance  nor  even  of  the  wisdom  and  skill 
of  any   one  horse-breeder   is   self-evident.     They 

149 


150  THE    HORSE 

represent  many  lifetimes  of  study,  experiment, 
and  research  and  crown  the  labors  of  many  bygone 
horsemen  in  a  field  where,  perhaps  more  than  in 
any  other,  one  must,  to  attain  success,  be  in  close 
touch  with  Nature  and  possessed  of  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  her  laws.  To  describe  their  evolu- 
tion in  such  manner  as  to  show  clearly  how  it  was 
brought  about  it  is  necessary  for  me  not  only  to 
refer  to  the  efforts  of  American  horsemen  since  we 
first  began  to  breed  horses  for  speed  at  the  trot, 
but  to  take  a  brief  glance  at  the  horses  of  an 
earlier  period. 

In  earlier  days,  as  pointed  out  in  the  chapter 
on  carriage  horses,  thoroughbreds  were  very 
naturally  regarded  as  the  most  to  be  desired  of  all 
animals  and,  whenever  a  farmer  could,  he  secured 
the  services  of  a  thoroughbred  stallion  for  his 
brood-mare.  Such  horses,  however,  were  few  in 
number  as  compared  with  those  of  humbler  origin 
and  the  majority  of  farmers  had  to  content  them- 
selves with  such  stock  as  was  available.  Thus 
the  breed  of  American  horses,  if  it  could  be  called 
a  breed  at  all,  was  of  an  extremely  composite 
character  and  included  not  only  the  blood  of 
nearly  every  type  of  English  horse  then  in  use, 
but  also  that  of  the  little  horse  of  Canada,  com- 
monly called  the  Kanuck.  One  distinct  breed 
sprang  up,  the  Narragansett  pacers  of  southern 


THE    TWO-MINUTE    TROTTER       151 

Rhode  Island,  now  known  to  have  been  of  Andalu- 
sian  origin,  but  these  horses  were  chiefly  bred  in 
their  purity  for  export  and  it  is  doubtful  if  they 
left  much  impress  upon  American  stock  in  general. 

With  a  native  stock  composed  of  so  many  ele- 
ments and  often  bred  with  little  reference  to 
pedigree,  it  is  no  wonder  that  speed  at  the  trot, 
when  it  first  showed  itself,  seemed  more  a  matter 
of  accident  than  anything  else.  That  it  was  not 
looked  for  by  the  breeders  of  the  earliest  celeb- 
rities is  certain,  for  Dutchman  was  first  found 
by  Hiram  Woodruff  working  in  a  string-team  on 
a  brick-wagon,  and  Flora  Temple,  before  her 
career  as  a  trotter,  was  used  by  a  drover  to  haul 
his  gig.  But  let  us  look  at  the  breeding  of  a  few 
of  the  old-time  performers  and  see  if  it  throws  any 
light  on  the  matter  of  speed  at  the  trot. 

Trustee,  the  first  horse  to  trot  twenty  miles  m 
an  hour,  was  by  imported  Trustee  (thorough- 
bred) ;  his  dam,  Fanny  Pullen,  largely  of  thor- 
ough blood. 

Dutchman,  though  his  breeding  is  not  definitely 
known,  was  said  to  be  sired  by  a  thoroughbred 
horse,  and  both  his  appearance  and  characteristics 
indicated  a  goodly  percentage  of  thorough  blood. 

Lady  Blanche,  foaled  in  1829,  was  by  Abdallah, 
a  son  of  Mambrino,  by  Imported  Messenger  (thor- 
oughbred). 


152  THE    HORSE 

Lady  Suffolk,  foaled  in  1833,  was  by  Engineer, 
a  son  of  Imported  Messenger  (thoroughbred)  ;  her 
dam  by  Plato,  also  a  son  of  Imported  Messenger. 

Flora  Temple,  foaled  about  1845,  was  by  One- 
Eyed  Hunter,  a  son  of  Kentucky  Hunter  (thor- 
oughbred). 

We  find  in  every  one  of  these  horses  a  large 
proportion  of  thorough  blood ;  two  out  of  the  four 
whose  breeding  is  known  are  descendants  of  Mes- 
senger, and  Lady  Suffolk  is  not  only  inbred  to 
Messenger  but  is  only  one  remove  from  him  on  her 
sire's  side  and  two  on  her  dam's. 

Two  old-time  stallions,  though  their  fame  did 
not  come  till  much  later,  should  also  be  mentioned 
with  the  early  trotters : 

Abdallah,  foaled  in  18S3,  was  by  Mambrino,  a 
son  of  Imported  Messenger ;  his  dam  the  "  trot- 
ting mare  "  Amazonia. 

American  Star,  foaled  in  1837,  and  subse- 
quently noted  as  a  sire  of  speed-producing  daugh- 
ters, was  by  American  Star;  his  dam  by  Henry 
and  his  granddam  by  Messenger. 

It  would  seem  to  be  obvious  that  thorough 
blood  was  an  important  element  in  the  make-up 
of  a  trotter  and  also,  judging  by  the  examples  at 
hand,  that  it  was  well  to  have  it  come  through 
Imported  Messenger.  And  I  may  as  well  say  here 
as  anywhere  that  events  have  proved  this  to  be  a 


THE    TWO-MINUTE    TROTTER      166 

fact  and  that  in  Imported  Messenger  originated 
the  best  strains  of  trotting  blood  now  in  our 
country.  But  how  little  this  was  then  understood 
or  appreciated  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Abdallah, 
now  honored  as  the  sire  of  that  greatest  of  Amer- 
ican trotting  sires,  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian,  was 
allowed  to  die  through  neglect  and  starvation  on 
a  sandy  beach  on  Long  Island.  Apart  from  the 
pathetic  spectacle  of  the  grand  old  horse  perish- 
ing in  this  ignominious  and  miserable  way,  the  loss 
thus  unconsciously  occasioned  to  the  interests  of 
trotting-horses  is  a  matter  for  deep  regret  and 
recalls  the  scriptural  text,  "  My  people  are  de- 
stroyed through  lack  of  knowledge." 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  groping  in  the  dark 
in  the  breeding  that  followed  and  a  great  many 
bitter  disappointments  and  heart-sickening  fail- 
ures. A  constant  difficulty  was  that  many  of 
the  stallions  in  use  were  of  such  mingled  strains 
of  blood  that  they  were  uncertain  in  transmitting 
their  qualities  to  their  progeny.  The  principle 
that  "  like  begets  like  "  is  only  operative  among 
animals  of  a  pure  breed,  and  when  a  stock-horse 
is  of  such  mixed  lineage  that  his  son  or  daughter 
is  liable  to  "  take  back  "  to  any  one  of  a  dozen 
ancestors,  all  different,  there  is  little  pleasure  or 
satisfaction  in  breeding.  The  introduction  of 
more  thorough  blood  would  have  added  to  the  pre- 


154  THE    HORSE 

potency,  but,  despite  the  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
a  belief  prevailed  that  thorough  blood  was  antag- 
onistic to  the  trotting  action  and  therefore  to  be 
kept  as  remote  as  possible.  It  thus  came  about 
that  some  rank  quitters  were  bred,  horses  that,  al- 
though they  had  speed,  could  not  stand  up  to  a 
race  of  broken  heats.  And  it  has  been  said,  with 
much  reason,  that  "  God  hates  a  quitter." 

The  number  of  blanks  in  the  lottery  (for  so  it 
was  then  frequently  called)  of  breeding  caused 
serious  reflection  upon  the  course  being  followed 
and  more  than  twenty-five  years  after  the  days  of 
Dutchman  and  Flora  Temple  some  very  intelligent 
horsemen  felt  that  in  many  of  the  essential  quali- 
ties of  the  race-horse  the  earlier  celebrities  had 
never  been  surpassed  and  that  therefore  the  im- 
provement in  trotters  was  much  less  than  was 
commonly  supposed.  Looking  back  now,  how- 
ever, one  cannot  but  feel  that  in  reality  a  great 
advance  had  been  made.  For,  not  to  mention 
other  sires,  the  great  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian  had 
been  bred  and  was  now  founding  a  family  destined 
to  be  without  a  peer  in  the  racing  world  and,  not- 
withstanding the  innumerable  failures  and  disap- 
pointments and  blunders  in  breeding,  nothing  was 
now  more  certain  than  that  trotters  were  begotten 
by  trotters.  A  new  and  distinct  breed,  in  fact, 
was  in  process  of  formation. 


THE    TWO-MINUTE    TROTTER       155 

Familiar  as  the  pedigree  of  Rysdyk's  Hamble- 
tonian  is  to  horsemen,  I  here  subjoin  it — partly 


Si         el 


U      ii 


9 


I       I       Pi      ! 
I       I       J  t     I 


m  .S 

"SI 
«  i 

Co 


156  THE    HORSE 

because  any  account  of  American  horses  would  be 
incomplete  without  it  and  partly  for  the  benefit  of 
such  of  my  readers  as  do  not  already  know  it.  It 
is  worthy  of  thoughtful  examination  and  shows 
pretty  clearly  where  the  speed-producing  power 
came  from.  The  horse  himself  certainly  could  not 
be  called  handsome,  nor  was  he  specially  speedy 
— 2:40  or  2:45  being  probably  about  his  gait. 
But  he  was  a  horse  of  great  vitality  and  stamina, 
and  illustrates,  as  few  stallions  do,  the  truism  that 
the  value  of  a  stock-horse  lies  not  in  his  own  per- 
formances but  in  those  of  his  sons  and  daughters. 

There  were  many  intermediate  steps  to  be  taken, 
however,  between  the  founding  of  this  family  and 
the  production  of  the  two-minute  trotter. 

There  are  two  ways  by  which  the  prepotency 
of  a  new  breed  can  be  rendered  greater  and  its 
type  more  firmly  fixed;  first,  by  inbreeding;  sec- 
ond, by  an  occasional  fresh  admixture  of  that 
pure  strain  of  blood  which  forms  its  most  im- 
portant component  part.  After  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Hambletonian  family  the  first  method 
was  followed  with  renewed  zeal  and  with  fine  re- 
sults. Many  horsemen,  pondering  on  the  blood- 
lines of  the  great  sire,  now  began  to  question 
whether  it  might  not  be  wise  to  go  back  to  the 
fountainhead  and  add  to  the  blood  of  Messenger  a 
little  more  of  the  thoroughbred  strain. 


THE    TWO-MINUTE    TROTTER       157 

As  a  matter  of  common-sense,  Messenger  was 
surely  not  the  only  thoroughbred  that  could  beget 
speed  at  the  trot,  however  gifted  he  might  be  in 
that  line;  the  progeny  of  Trustee,  Bellfounder, 
and  others  were  speedy  at  the  trot.  Leland  Stan- 
ford was  the  greatest  advocate  of  the  thorough- 
bred cross,  arguing  that,  as  the  thoroughbred  al- 
ready possessed  all  the  qualities  desired  except  the 
ability  to  trot  fast,  the  more  thorough  blood  in 
the  trotter  the  better,  even  to  the  extent,  if  it  were 
possible,  of  simply  engrafting  the  trotting  action 
upon  the  thoroughbred  horse.  He  purchased 
Electioneer  and  bred  him  to  strictly  thorough- 
bred mares. 

This  was  regarded  as  an  extreme  experiment, 
even  by  those  friendly  to  the  thoroughbred  cross, 
for  few  believed  that  it  was  wise  to  have  it  quite 
so  near  as  that.  But  the  stallion,  Palo  Alto, 
^:08%,  was  a  result  of  this  way  of  breeding,  and 
the  California  stock  rose  to  fabulous  prices.  It 
was  purchased  largely  by  Eastern  breeders  and 
more  than  ever  before  trotters  began  to  look  fine 
and  bloodlike. 

Another  factor  that  tended  to  the  more  rapid 
evolution  of  speed  was  an  increased  attention  to 
the  choice  of  the  dam.  The  old-fashioned  idea 
that  good  blood  was  of  more  importance  in  the 
sire  than  in  the  dam  was  a  false  one.     It  had  its 


168  THE    HORSE 

origin,  not  in  any  observed  preponderance  of  pre- 
potency on  the  sire's  side,  but  simply  in  the  fact 
that  a  mare  could  only  perpetuate  her  qualities  by 
the  slow  process  of  single  births,  whereas  a  stal- 
lion could  be  the  father  of  a  great  number  of  foals 
in  a  single  year. 

But  it  is  quality,  not  numbers,  that  counts ;  the 
man  in  the  scriptural  parable  justly  reckoned  the 
one  pearl  of  great  price  more  valuable  than  every- 
thing else  he  possessed.  Nature  gives  but  spar- 
ingly of  her  very  best,  in  any  event,  and  when  it 
was  demontsrated  by  experience  and  cold,  actual 
dollars  and  cents  that  the  single  foal  of  a  choice 
mare  was  sometimes  worth  more  than  all  the  foals 
in  toto  that  his  father  ever  produced  from  mares 
less  carefully  selected,  then  brood-mares  rose  to 
their  true  place  of  honor.  The  Arabs  knew  the 
value  of  their  mares  hundreds  of  years  ago,  but 
we  often  have  to  re-learn  lessons  which  have  been 
thoroughly  mastered  at  some  time  in  the  past. 

When  Jay-Eye-See  first  trotted  his  mile  in  S  :10 
on  the  track  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  his 
speed  was  regarded  as  phenomenal  and  there  was 
naturally  more  or  less  discussion  of  the  chances 
of  ultimately  lowering  the  trotting  record  to  two 
minutes  and  the  length  of  time  it  might  take.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  it  took  nearly  twenty  years. 
Whether  this  is  a  long  time  or  not  depends  upon 


THE    TWO-MINUTE    TROTTER       159 

the  point  of  view;  undoubtedly,  in  the  eyes  of 
many  it  is.  But  considering  the  low  records  with 
which  we  are  dealing  and  the  fact  that  the  breed 
of  American  trotters  must  still  be  classed  as  a  new 
one  and  therefore  of  less  prepotency  and  fixity  of 
type  than  it  will  ultimately  have,  I  do  not  think 
that  the  time  can  properly  be  considered  a  long 
one,  but  rather  the  reverse. 

So  much  wonder  is  often  expressed  by  those 
unfamiliar  with  the  education  of  the  horses  at  the 
amount  of  training  bestowed  on  a  trotter — 
"  especially,"  as  they  say,  "  as  he  was  bred  for  a 
trotter  and  so  ought  to  trot  fast  of  his  own  ac- 
cord " — that  I  think  I  should  add  a  few  words  on 
this  point.  Trotters  often  require  considerable 
training  chiefly  because,  though  the  trot  is  un- 
doubtedly a  natural  gait,  it  is  not  the  gait  at 
which  the  horse  naturally  goes  at  his  greatest 
speed.  For  the  same  reason  it  is  often  necessary 
for  a  horse  to  get  thoroughly  over  the  flightiness 
and  giddiness  of  youth  before  he  is  fit  for  great 
performances  on  the  track.  There  are,  of  course, 
cases  of  phenomenal  precocity,  just  as  there  are 
in  the  human  race,  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
great  precocity,  in  either  horse  or  man,  is  ever 
desirable  in  the  long  run,  and  the  saying  of  Hiram 
Woodruff,  many  years  ago,  that  "  the  best 
trotters  never  reach  their  best  speed  without  a 


160  THE    HORSE 

great  deal  of  handling,"  is  probably  as  true  to-day 
as  it  ever  was. 

Can  our  trotters  be  improved  still  further? 
There  is  no  question  about  it,  but  in  looking  for- 
ward it  is  well  to  keep  two  things  in  mind:  first, 
that  we  are  approaching  the  point  where  greater 
speed  at  the  trot  will  be  impossible  and  that  there- 
fore the  lowering  of  records  must  be  constantly 
slower  and  in  less  degree;  and  second,  that  great 
improvement  may  be  going  on,  even  though 
records  be  not  materially  lowered.  The  increased 
fixity  of  type  that  is  sure  to  follow;  the  higher 
average  of  speed  for  all  trotting  bred  horses ;  the 
beauty  and  finish  that  have  already  come  from  the 
fine  blood-lines  in  use  and  which,  as  time  passes, 
are  destined  to  become  more  and  more  general — all 
these  things  we  may  regard  with  no  less  pride  and 
satisfaction  than  the  occasional  exhibition  of  great 
speed. 


END 


HANDBOOKS 


Each  book  deals  with  a  separate  subject 
and  deals  with  it  thoroughly.  If  you  want  to 
know  anything  about  Airedales  an  (D  U  T'l  N  G 
HANDBOOK  gives  you  all  you  want.  If 
it*s  Apple  Growing,  another  0  U J'l  N  G 
HANDBOOK  meets  your  need.  The  Fish- 
erman, the  Camper,  the  Poultry-raiser,  the 
Automobilist,  the  Horseman,  all  varieties  of 
outdoor  enthusiasts,  will  find  separate  volumes 
for  their  separate  interests.  There  it  no 
waste  space. 

The  series  is  based  on  the  plan  of  one 
subject  to  a  book  and  each  book  complete. 
The  authors  are  experts.  Each  book  has  been 
specially  prepared  for  this  series  and  all  are 
published  in  uniform  style,  flexible  cloth 
binding,  selling  at  the  fixed  price  of  seventy 
cents  per  copy. 

Two  hundred  titles  are  projected.  The 
series  covers  all  phases  of  outdoor  life,  from 
bee-keeping  to  big  game  shooting.  The 
books  now  ready  or  in  preparation  are  de- 
scribed on  the  following  pages: 


OUTING  PUBLISHINGTCOMPANY 


Outing  Handbooks 


The  Airedale.  By  William  Haynes.  This  book  opens  with  a 
short  chapter  on  the  origin  and  development  of  the  Airedale  as 
a  distinctive  breed.  The  author  then  takes  up  the  problems  of 
type  as  bearing  on  the  selection  of  the  dog,  breeding,  training 
and  use.  The  book  is  designed  for  the  non-professional  dog 
fancier  who  wishes  common  sense  advice  which  does  not  in- 
volve elaborate  preparation  or  expenditure.  Chapters  are  in- 
cluded on  the  care  of  the  dog  in  the  kennel  and  simple 
remedies    for   ordinary   diseases. 

The  Amateur  Gunsmith.  Edited  by  Horace  Kephart.  Every  man 
who  owns  a  gun  yields  at  some  time  or  other  to  the  tempta- 
tion to  take  it  apart.  Usually  he  regrets  having  yielded  to  this 
temptation  when  it  comes  time  to  reassemble.  This  book  is 
designed  to  aid  the  inquisitive  and  deft-fingered  who  do  not 
care  or  are  unable  to  turn  the  gun  over  to  a  professional  gun- 
smith for  repair.  It  is  thirty  years  since  anything  of  this  sort 
appeared,  and  in  that  interval  the  local  gunsmiths  have  prac- 
tically passed  out,  leaving  the  gun  user  to  depend  entirely  upon 
the  experts  of  the  large  sporting  goods  dealers  in  the  larger 
cities  or  the  factory  of  the  maker. 

The  American  Rifle.  By  Charles  Askins.  The  author  has  taken 
up  in  detail  the  various  sporting  rifles  now  in  common  use, 
and  described  their  different  advantages,  with  the  maximum 
caliber  and  load  for  various  game.  An  important  feature  is 
the  discussion  of  trajectory  and  muzzle  velocity  as  affecting 
range  and  accuracy.  The  book  is  designed  especially  with 
reference  to  the  needs  of  the  man  who  wishes  to  take  up  the 
use  of  the  rifle  or  to  find  a  new  gun  better  adapted  to  the 
uses  to  which  he  wishes  to  put  it. 

Apple  Growing.  By  M.  C.  Burritt.  The  objective  point  of  this 
book  is  the  home  orchard  with  incidental  reference  to  market 
possibilities.  It  deals  with  such  matters  as  the  kinds  of  apples 
best  suited  to  certain  localities,  the  location  of  the  orchard 
and  the  soil  qualities  most  to  be  desired,  and  the  varieties  that 
can  be  planted  with  a  reasonable  assurance  of  success.  The 
whole  problem  of  planting  is  dealt  with  thoroughly  and  also 
the  care  of  the  trees,  and  the  harvesting  and  storage  of  the 
fruit. 

The  Automobile. — Its  Selection,  Care  and  Use.  By  Robert  Sloss 
This  is  a  plain,  practical  discussion  of  the  things  that  every 
man  needs  to  know  if  he  is  to  buy  th©  right  car  and  get  the 
most  out  of  it.  The  various  details  of  operation  and  care 
.  are  given  in  simple,  intelligible  terms.  From  it  the  car  owner 
can  easily  learn  the  mechanism  of  his  motor  and  the  art  of 
locating  motor  trouble,  as  well  as  how  to  use  his  car  for 
the  greatest  pleasure.  A  chapter  is  included  on  building 
garages. 
Backwoods  Surgery  and  Medicine.  By  Charles  Stuart  Moody.  A 
handy  book  for  the  prudent  lover  of  the  woods  who  doesn't 
expect  to  be  ill  but  believes  in  being  on  the  safe  side.  Com- 
mon-sense methods  for  the  treatment  of  the  ordinary  wounds 
and  accidents  are  described — setting  a  broken  limb,  reducing 
a  dislocation,  caring  for  burns,  cuts,  etc.  Practical  remedies 
for  camp  diseases  are  recommended,  as  well  as  the  ordinary 
Indications  of  the  most  probable  ailments.  Includes  a  list  of 
the  necessary  medical  and  surgical  supplies. 

The  manager  of  a  mine  in  'Nome,  AlasTia,  writes  as 
foUoics:  ''I  haxie  heen  on  the  trail  for  pears  (twelve 
in  the  Klondilt-e  and  Alaska)  and  have  always  wanted 
just  such  a  hook  as  Dr.  Moody's  Backwoods  Surffery 
and  Medicine." 


Outing  Handbooks 


The  Beagle.  In  this  book  emphasis  will  be  laid  on  the  use  of 
the  beagle  in  the  hunting  field  rather  than  In  the  show  ring. 
It  is  designed  for  the  man  who  wishes  to  keep  a  small  pack 
for  his  own  enjoyment  rather  than  for  the  large  kennel  owner. 
Simple  remedies  are  prescribed  and  suggestions  are  given 
as  to  the  best  type  for  the  purposes  of  purchase  or  breeding. 

Boat  and  Canoe  Building.  Edited  by  Horace  Kephart.  It  is  not 
a  difficult  matter  to  build  a  boat  or  a  canoe  yourself.  All  that 
is  necessary  is  to  bring  together  knowledge,  manual  dexterity, 
and  the  proper  material.  The  material  can  be  secured  almost 
anywhere  at  little  expense.  The  manual  dexterity  will  come 
with  practice  and  this  book  furnishes  the  knovv'^ledge.  All 
types  of  the  smaller  boats  and  canoes  are  dealt  with  and 
suggestions  are  given  as  to  the  building  and  equipping  of 
the   smaller   sail   boats. 

Camp  Cookery.  By  Horace  Kephart.  "The  less  a  man  carries  in 
his  pack,  the  more  he  must  carry  in  his  head,"  says  Mr.  Kep- 
hart. This  book  tells  what  a  man  should  carry  in  both  pack 
and  head.  Every  step  is  traced — the  selection  of  provisions 
and  utensils,  with  the  kind  and  quantity  of  each,  the  prep- 
aration of  game,  the  building  of  fires  the  cooking  of  every 
conceivable  kind  of  food  that  the  camp  outfit  or  woods,  fields, 
or  streams  maj''  provide — even  to  the  making  of  desserts. 
Every  precept  is  the  result  of  hard  practice  and  long  experience. 
Every  recipe  has  been  carefully  tested.  It  is  the  book  for  the 
man  who  wants  to  dine  well  and  wholesomely,  but  in  true 
wilderness  fashion  without  reliance  on  grocery  stores  or  elab- 
orate camp  outfits.  It  is  adapted  equally  well  to  the  trips  of 
every  length  and  to  all  conditions  of  climate,  season  or  coun- 
try: the  best  possible  companion  for  one  who  wants  to  travel 
light  and  live  well. 

The   chapter  headings   tell  their  own  story: 
Provisions. — Utensils. — Fires. — Dressing  and  Keeping  Game  and 
Fish. — Meat. — Game. — Fish  and   Shellfish. — Cured   Meats,    etc. — > 
Eggs. — Breadstuffs    and    Cereals. — Vegetables. — Soups. — Bever- 
ages and  Desserts. 

"Scores  of  neic  hints  may  te  obtained  hy  the  house- 

keeper  as  xoell  as  the  camper  from  Camp  Cookery.'* 

— Portland  Oregonian. 

"I  am  inclined  to  thing  that  the  advice  contained 

in  Mr.  KepJiart's  hook  is  to  he  relied  on.     I  had  to 

stop  reading  his  recipes  for  cooking  xcild  fowl — they 

made  me  hxingry."  — A'etc  York  Herald, 

''The  most  useful  and  valuable  hook  to  the  camper 

yet  puhlished." — Grand  Rapids  Herald. 

"Camp  Cookery  is  destined  to  he  in  the  kit  of  every 

tent  dweller  in  the  country." 

— Edwin  Markham  in  the  San  Francisco  Examiner, 

Exercise  and  Health.  By  Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson.  Dr.  Hutchin- 
son takes  the  common-sense  view  that  the  greatest  problem 
in  exercise  for  most  of  us  is  to  get  enough  of  the  right  kind. 
The  greatest  error  in  exercise  is  not  to  take  enough,  and  the 
greatest  danger  in  athletics  is  in  giving  them  up.  The 
Chapter  heads  are  illuminating:  Errors  in  Exercise. — Exercise 
and  the  Heart. — Muscle  Maketh  Man. — The  Danger  of  Stop- 
ping Athletics. — Exercise  that  Rests.  It  is  written  in  a  direct 
matter-of-fact  manner  with  an  avoidance  of  medical  terms, 
and  a  strong  emphasis  on  the  rational,  all-round  manner  of 
living  that  is  best  calculated  to  bring  a  man  to  a  ripe  old 
age  with  little  illness  or  consciousness  of  bodily  weakness. 


Outing  Handbooks 


farm  Drainage  and  Irrigation.  One  of  the  most  Berious  farm 
problems  is  tliat  connected  with  water,  eitlier  its  lack  or  its 
too  great  abundance.  This  book  gives  the  simple  proved 
facts  as  to  the  best  methods  for  taking  water  off  the  land  or 
bringing  it  on.  It  shows  the  farmer  how  to  bring  his  swamps 
into  cultivation  without  converting  them  into  sun-dried  wastes. 
Also  how  the  sandy  stretches  may  be  kept  moist  and  bearing 
through  even  the  driest  summer.  A  knowledge  of  these  simple 
facts  will  relieve  tlie  farmer  from  the  haunting  fear  of 
drought  or  the  long  rains  that  sometimes  blight  the  spring 
in  Northern  and  Eastern  latitudes. 

The  Farmer's  Bees.  The  keeping  of  bees  Is  neither  a  difficult  nor 
expensive  matter,  nor  is  it  one  in  which  a  little  knowledge 
is  necessarily  a  dangerous  thing.  However,  there  are  a  few 
elementary  facts  which  could  be  well  learnt,  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  the  handling  of  swarms  and  the  provision  of  proper 
honey-making  food  and  the  care  of  the  bees  in  winter.  This 
book  covers  this  elementary  field  in  a  logical  and  convincing 
manner. 

Thi2  Farmer's  Bookkeeper.  Half  of  the  secret  of  success  in  farm- 
ing is  knowing  the  real  relation  between  income  and  expendi- 
ture. In  no  business  is  that  so  hard  to  find  probably,  as  in 
farming.  Mr.  Buffum  has  presented  a  simple,  common-sense 
method  of  farm  accounting  which  he  has  used  with  great  suc- 
cess for  many  years.  It  requires  no  elaborate  knowledge  of 
bookkeeping  and  is  entirely  reliable  in  showing  the  farmer 
where  his  business  stands  as  a  going  concern. 

The  Farmer's  Cattle.  In  this  volume  the  problem  discussed  is 
two-fold,  one  of  breeding  and  the  other  of  care.  The  breed  is 
determined  largely  by  the  use  to  which  the  farmer  wishes  his 
cattle  put,  whether  for  dairy  or  beef  purposes.  Their  care 
is  affected  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  same  consideration  but 
not  so  largely.  For  the  average  farmer  a  combination  of  the 
two  is  usually  most  desirable,  and  it  is  in  this  light  that  this 
book  discusses  the  problem.  All  of  the  information  is  de- 
signed to  avoid  unnecessary  expense  and  to  save  the  farmer 
from  rushing  into  extreme  and  costly  experiments  or  wasting 
his  time  on  valueless  mongrel  strains.  The  care  of  calves 
is  discussed  in  length,  as  also  the  stabling  and  feeding  of 
milk  cows  and  the  feeding  of  the  stock  destined  for  the 
market. 

The  Farmer's  Hogs.  It  was  once  the  boast  of  Illinois,  then  the 
biggest  grain  producing  state  of  the  Union,  that  90  per  cent, 
of  the  corn  raised  in  that  state  was  fed  in  the  country  of  its 
origin.  Probably  70  per  cent,  of  that  amount  was  fed  to  hogs. 
That  condition  still  holds  in  a  large  measure.  Hence  this  book 
is  designed  to  aid  the  practical  farmer  in  selecting  the  best 
hogs  for  market  purposes  as  well  as  for  home  use,  and  to 
advise  him  as  to  their  care  and  feeding  so  as  to  insure  a 
living  profit  on  their  cost  and  the  cost  of  the  grain  necessary 
to  feed  them  for  market. 

The  Farmer's  Poultry.  It  is  a  proved  fact  that  there  is  large 
■profit  to  be  made  from  the  raising  of  poultry  but  not  by  the 
amateur  who  rushes  into  it  without  knowledge  or  experience. 
In  this  book  is  given  the  fruit  of  many  years  experience  of  a 
man  who  has  made  poultry  raising  pay.  The  birds  dealt  with 
are  not  the  expensive  exotics  of  the  poultry  fancier  but  the 
practical  varieties  with  records  as  good  producers  and  a  good 
name  in  the  market.  The  reader  is  taught  how  to  provide 
shelter  for  his  poultry  that  shall  keep  them  comfortable  and 
safe  from  vermin  of  all  kinds  without  Involving  the  builder  in 
prohibitive  expense.  The  objective  point  Is  poultry  as  a  by- 
product of  the  Farm  that  shall  provide  amply  for  the  farmer's 
tftbl«  with  a  margin  for  th«  market. 


Outing  Handbooks 


The  Farmer's  Vegetable  Garden.  This  is  designed  especially  for 
home  growing  with  some  reference,  however,  to  the  possibilities 
of  market  use  of  over  supply.  It  gives  the  latest  and  best 
advice  on  the  raising  of  the  staple  vegetables,  such  as  potatoes, 
cabbages,  beans,  peas,  turnips,  and  so  forth.  It  also  shows 
the  farmer  how,  without  material  trouble  or  expense  he  may 
enrich  his  table  with  new  varieties  and  lengthen  the  season 
of  his  garden's  productiveness.  It  is  a  manual  for  the  gardener 
who  has  only  odd  times  to  devote  to  his  garden  and  its 
advice  is  intended  to  enable  him  to  use  that  time  to  the 
highest  advantage. 

Farm  Planning.  It  Is  a  vexing  problem  with  every  practical 
farmer  to  get  the  greatest  possible  use  out  of  his  land  with  the 
least  possible  waste.  A  stony  hillside  is  not  suitable  for  the 
raising  of  wheat  but  it  may  furnish  an  excellent  location  for 
an  orchard.  A  piece  of  swampy  bottom  land  may  not  bo 
ideal  for  barley  but  with  proper  drainage  and  cultivation  it 
may  be  unexcelled  for  a  vegetable  garden.  This  book  deals 
with  just  such  problems  and  also  with  the  placing  of  farm 
buildings,  yards,  and  so  forth,  in  order  to  make  them  fit  in, 
so  that  the  farm  may  be  kept  constantly  at  its  highest  pitch  of 
usefulness. 

The  Fine  Art  of  Fishing.  By  Samuel  G.  Camp.  Combines  the 
pleasure  of  catching  fish  with  the  gratification  of  following  the 
sport  in  the  most  approved  manner.  The  suggestions  offered 
are  helpful  to  beginner  and  expert  anglers.  The  range  of 
fish  and  fishing  conditions  covered  is  wide  and  includes  such 
subjects  as  "Casting  Fine  and  Far  Off,"  "Strip-Casting  for 
Bass,"  "Fishing  for  Mountain  Trout,"  and  "Autumn  Fishing 
for  Lake  Trout."  The  book  is  pervaded  with  a  spirit  of  love  for 
the  streamside  and  the  out-doors  generally  which  the  genu- 
ine angler  will  appreciate,  A  companion  book  to  "Fishing 
Kits  and  Equipment."  The  advice  on  outfitting  so  capably 
given  in  that  book  is  supplemented  in  this  later  work  by  equally 
valuable   information   on   how   to    use   the   equipment. 

Fishing  Kits  and  Equipment.  By  Samuel  G.  Camp.  A  complete 
guide  to  the  angler  buying  a  new  outfit.  Every  detail  of  fishing 
kit  of  the  freshwater  angler  is  described,  from  rodtip  to  creel 
and  clothing.  Special  emphasis  is  laid  on  outfitting  for  fly 
fishing,  but  full  instruction  is  also  given  to  the  man  who 
w^ants  to  catch  pickerel,  pike,  muskellunge,  lake-trout,  bass 
and  other  fresh-water  game  fishes.  Prices  are  quoted  for  all 
articles  recommended  and  the  approved  method  of  selecting 
and  testing  the  various  rods,  lines,  leaders,  etc.,  is  described. 

"A  complete  guide  to  the  angler  buying  a  new  outfit." 

— Peoria  Herald. 

"The  man  advised  by  Mr.  Camp  will  catch  his  fish." 

Seattle,  P.  I. 

"Even  the  seasoned  angler  will  read  this  book  with 

profit." — Chicago  Tribune. 

The  Horse,  Its  Breeding,  Care  and  Use.  By  David  Buffum.  Mr. 
Buffum  takes  up  the  common,  every-day  problems  of  the 
ordinary  horse-user,  such  as  feeding,  shoeing,  simple  home 
remedies,  breaking  and  the  cure  for  various  equine  vices.  An 
important  chapter  is  that  tracing  the  influx  of  Arabian  blood 
into  the  English  and  American  horses  and  its  value  and  limi- 
tations. Chapters  are  included  on  draft-horses,  carriage  horses, 
and  the  development  of  the  two-minute  trotter.  It  is  dis- 
tinctly a  sensible  book  for  the  sensible  man  who  wishes  to 
know  how  he  can  improve  his  horses  and  his  horsemanship 
at  the  same  time. 


Outing  Handbooks 


Intensive  Farming.  By  L.  C.  Corbett.  The  problem  as  presented 
in  this  book  Is  not  so  much  that  of  producing  results  on  a 
small  scale  because  the  land  is  no  longer  fertile  enough  to  be 
handled  in  an  expensive  manner  but  rather  one  of  producing 
a  profit  on  high  priced  land,  which  is  the  real  secret  of  in- 
tensive farming.  This  book  will  take  up  the  question  of  the 
kind  of  crops,  and  method  of  planting  and  cultivation  neces- 
sary to  justify  the  high  prices  now  being  charged  for  farming 
land  in  many  sections.  Its  publication  marks  the  passing  of 
the  old  style,  wasteful  farmer  with  his  often  destructive 
methods  and  the  appearance  of  the  new  farming  which  means 
added  farm  profit  and  proper  conservation  of  the  soil's  re- 
sources. 

Leather  and  Cloth  Working.  Edited  by  Horace  Kephart.  This 
book  is  designed  to  give  competent  instruction  in  tlie  making 
of  the  outdoor  paraphernalia  into  which  leather  and  cloth  enter, 
such  as  tents,  sails,  sleeping  bags,  knapsacks,  blanket  rolls, 
and  so  forth.  It  has  the  double  advantage  of  reducing  the 
cost  of  the  equipment  and  minimizing  the  risks  of  loss  or 
accident  when  away  from  civilization.  The  cutting  or  patching 
of  a  sail  or  the  repair  of  a  sleeping  bag  may  seem  like  a 
simple  matter,  but  knowledge  of  how  to  do  it  may  often  spell 
the  difference  between  safety  and  comfort  or  danger  and  a  very 
high  degree  of  discomfort. 

Making  and  Keeping  Soils.  By  David  Buffum.  This  is  intended 
for  practical  farmers,  especially  those  who  wish  to  operate  on 
a  comparatively  small  scale.  The  author  gives  the  latest 
results  as  showing  the  possibility  of  bringing  worn-out  soil  up 
to  its  highest  point  of  productiveness  and  maintaining  it  there 
with  the  least  possible  expense.  The  problem  of  fertilization 
enters  in  as  also  that  of  crop  rotation  and  the  kind  of  crops 
best  adapted  to  the  different  kinds  of  soil. 

The  Motor  Boat,  Its  Selection,  Care  and  Use.  By  H.  W.  Slauson. 
The  intending  purchaser  of  a  motor  boat  is  advised  as  to  the 
type  of  boat  best  suited  to  his  particular  needs,  the  power 
required  for  the  desired  speeds,  and  the  equipment  necessary 
for  the  varying  uses.  The  care  of  the  engines  receives  special 
attention  and  chapters  are  included  on  the  use  of  the  boat  in 
camping  and  cruising  expeditions,  its  care  through  the  winter, 
and  its  efficiency  in  the  summer. 

Outdoor  Signalling.  By  Elbert  Wells.  Mr.  Wells  has  perfected  a 
method  of  signalling  by  means  of  wig-wag,  light,  smoke,  or 
whistle  which  is  as  simple  as  it  is  effective.  The  funda- 
mental principle  can  be  learnt  in  ten  minutes  and  its  applica- 
tion is  far  easier  than  that  of  any  other  code  now  in  use. 
It  permits  also  the  use  of  cipher  and  can  be  adapted  to  almost 
any  imaginable  conditions  of  weather,  light,  or  topography. 

Planning  the  Country  House.  The  builder  of  a  house  in  the 
country  or  in  the  suburbs  is  frequently  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween two  extremes — his  own  ignorance  or  the  conventional 
stereotyped  designs  of  mediocre  architects  and  builders.  This 
book  provides  a  solution  by  presenting  a  number  of  excellent 
plans  by  an  expert  architect  of  wide  experience  in  country 
house  building,  together  with  a  plain  statement  of  the  prob- 
lems which  the  builder  must  face,  and  the  most  suitable  and 
advisable  methods  of  solving  them.  A  sufficient  number  of 
plans  are  presented  for  a  liberal  choice  or  to  suggest  the 
very  house  that   the  reader   has   been   looking  for. 


Outing  Handbooks 


Rustic  Carpentry.  Edited  by  Horace  Kephart.  Every  year  the 
number  of  dwellers  In  summer  cottages  of  the  smaller  type 
increases  and  every  year  more  and  more  people  are  giving 
attention  to  the  beautifying  of  their  own  summer  places  with 
porch  gates,  fences,  lawn  seats,  summer  houses,  and  so  forth. 
The  country  carpenter  Is  not  always  available  and  frequently 
not  dependable.  This  book  answers  the  call  for  information 
as  to  how  the  owner  of  a  summer  house  or  summer  cottage 
may  be  his  own  carpenter,  building  his  own  furniture,  con- 
structing his  own  porches,  adorning  his  place  with  attractive 
fences,  seats  and  so  forth.  Incidentally  it  opens  the  door  to 
a  most  attractive  way  of  spending  one's  leisure  hours  on  a 
summer  vacation. 

The  Setter.  As  the  hunting  dog  "par  excellence"  the  setter  will 
only  be  treated  with  direct  reference  to  his  use  before  the  guns, 
A  practical  method  of  putting  a  puppy  through  the  necessary 
preliminary  training  before  he  takes  the  field,  is  described,  as 
also  the  proper  use  of  the  broken  dog  in  actual  hunting  or  in 
field  trials.  As  in  our  other  dog  books  special  attention  will  be 
given  to  the  care  of  the  dog  in  the  kennels,  type  and  qualities 
as  affecting  breeding,  and  simple  remedies  for  the  ordinary 
diseases. 

The  Scottish  and  Irish  Terriers.  By  Williams  Haynes.  These 
two  breeds  are  included  in  one  book  because  of  their  general 
similarity  of  type,  habits  and  use.  Both  have  been  increasing 
in  popularity  greatly  in  recent  years.  This  book  responds  to 
a  widely  felt  need  for  a  common-sense  manual  which  shall  de- 
scribe the  breed,  its  noteworthy  characteristics,  points  to  be  ob- 
served in  selecting  a  dog,  and  the  training  of  the  dog  after 
selection.  Remedies  for  the  ordinary  diseases  are  described 
and  advice  given  on  the  construction  and  care  of  kennels  in 
a  comprehensive  and  feasible  manner. 

Sheet  Metal  Working.  Edited  by  Horace  Kephart.  Sheet  metal 
enters  into  many  of  the  articles  that  constitute  an  important 
part  of  the  camper  or  canoeist's  outfit  such,  for  example,  as 
baker's  ovens,  cups  and  pans,  not  to  mention  the  numberless 
cans,  boxes  and  cases  which  must  find  a  place  somewhere 
in  the  outdoor  man's  bags.  This  book  teaches  the  reader  how 
to  obtain  exactly  the  thing  he  wants  because  it  teaches  him 
how  to  make  it  himself.  Also  it  is  an  excellent  insurance 
against  discomfort  in  the  woods  by  its  practical  advice  in  the 
matter  of  rough  and  ready  repair  and  refitting. 

Sporting  Firearms.  By  Horace  Kephart.  Mr.  Kephart  has  done 
for  the  user  of  the  shotgun,  the  rifle,  or  the  revolver  what  he 
did  for  the  camper  and  woods  cruiser  in  "The  Book  of  Camp- 
ing and  Woodcraft."  All  three  arms  are  dealt  with  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  every-day  non-professional  user,  and  com- 
mon-sense advice  is  given  as  to  the  makes,  calibres,  and  types 
for  the  various  uses.  Even  expert  marksmen  will  find  in  this 
book  possibilities  of  their  favorite  weapon  suggested  or  de- 
scribed, of  which  they  had  not  dreamt  before. 

Tracks  and  Tracking.  By  Josef  Brunner.  After  twenty  years  of 
patient  study  and  practical  experience,  Mr.  Brunner  can,  from 
his  intimate  knowledge,  speak  with  authority  on  this  subject: 
"Tracks  and  Tracking"  shows  how  to  follow  intelligently  even 
the  most  intricate  animal  or  bird  tracks.  It  teaches  how  to  in- 
terpret tracks  of  wild  game  and  decipher  the  many  tell-tale 
signs  of  the  chase  that  would  otherwise  pass  unnoticed  It 
proves  how  it  is  possible  to  tell  from  the  footprints  the  name 
sex,  speed,  direction,  whether  and  how  wounded,  and  many 
other  things  about  wild  animals  and  birds.  All  material  has 
b«en  gathered  first  hand. 


Outing  Handbooks 


Wing  and  Trap-Shooting.  By  Charles  Asklns.  The  only  practical 
manual  in  existence  dealing  with  wing  shooting  with  the 
modern  gun.  It  contains  a  full  discussion  of  the  various 
methods,  such  as  snap-shooting,  swing  and  half-swing,  dis- 
cusses the  flight  of  birds  with  reference  to  the  gunner's 
problem  of  lead  and  range  and  makes  special  application  of 
the  various  points  to  the  different  birds  commonly  shot  in  this 
country.  A  chapter  is  included  on  trap  shooting  and  the  book 
closes  with  a  forceful  and  common-sense  presentation  of  the 
etiquette  of   tbe  fieldi 


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^  An  illustrated  monthly  magazine  devoted 
to  the  interests  of  the  man  who  loves  the 
water, — sailing  and  motor  boating. 

fl  It  is  written  and  edited  by  practical  men 
who  have  done  the  things  about  which  they 
write,  if  it  be  a  cruise  on  the  Labrador, 
sailing  an  ocean  race  or  telling  how  to  put 
a  gasoline  engine  together. 

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be  how  to  adjust  a  carburetor,  plot  a  course, 
handle  sails  or  diagnose  a  case  of  balky 
engine,  is  authoritative. 

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YACHTING  is  the  call  of  the  water— the 
bracing,  irresistible  appeal  that  has  drawn 
men  off  shore  since  the  first  cockle-shell 
was  set  afloat.  Once  you  have  heard  and 
answered  it  you  will  know  why  a  sailor 
once  is  a  sailor  always — and  you  will  know 
also  why  YACHTING   should   interest  you. 

fl  The  most  beautiful  yachtsman's  magazine. 
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When  complete  will  be  a  series. of 

two  hundred  volumes  covering  all 

phases  of  out-door  and  home  life. 

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Shooting"  indicates  the  scope.  This 
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Partial  List  of  Titles 


rUHir^ 


AIREDALE.  THE— by  Williams  Hayne. 
APPLE  GROWING— by  M.  C.  Burritt 
AUTOMOBILE.  THE-Its  Selection.  Care  and 

Use— by  Robert  Sloss. 
BACKWOODS  SURGERY  AND  MEDI- 
CINE—by  Dr.  Chas.  S.  Moody 
BOAT     AND    CANOE     BUILDING- by 

Victor  J.  Slocum. 
BULL  TERRIER,  THE-by  Williams  Haynes 
^AMP  COOKERY— by  Hor_ace  Kephart 
CANOE  AND  BOAT  BUILDING— by  Vic 

tor  Slocum. 
CATTLE  DISEASES -by  B.  T.  Woodward 
EXERCISE  AND  HEALTH-by  Dr.  Woods 

Hutchinson 
FENCING— by  Edward  Breck 
FINE  ART  OF  FISHING.  THE-by  Samuel 

G.  Camp 
FISHING   KITS   AND   EQUIPMENT-by 

Samuel  G.  Camp 
FISHING  WITH   FLOATING   FLIES -by 

Samuel  G.  Camp 
FOX  TERRIER,  THE-  by  Williams  Haynes 
GASOUNE   MOTOR.   THE-by  H.  W. 

Slauson 
GUNSMITHING  FOR  THE  AMATEUR 

— by  Edward  C.  Grossman 


HORSE,  JHE— Its  Breeding  Care  and  Use- 
by  David  Buffum 

ICE  BOATING  -By  H.  Percy  Ashley,  Archi- 
bald Rogers,  Wm.  Stanborough  and  others. 

INTENSIVE  FARMING-by  L.  C.  Corbett 

LAYING  OUT  THE  FARM  FOR  PROFIT 

— by  L.  G.  Dodge 
MOTOR  BOAT,  THE  -Its  Selection  Care  and 

Use — by  H.  W.  Slauson 
NAVIGATION  FOR  THE  AMATEUR- 

by  Capt.  E.  T.  Morton 
OUTDOOR  PHOTOGRAPHY-by  Julian 

A.  Dimock 
OUTDOOR  SlGNALUNG-by  Elbert  Wells 
PACKING  AND  PORTA GING-by  Dillon 

WaUace 
PROFITABLE  BREEDS  OF  POULTRY 

—by  Arthur  S.  Wheeler 
RIFLES   AND    RIFLE   SHOOTING  -  by 

Charles  Askins 
SCOTTISH   AND  IRISH   TERRIERS-by 

Williams  Haynes 
SPORTING  FIREARMS-  by  Horace  Kephart 
TRACKS    AND    TRACKING  -  by   Josef 

Brunner. 
WING    AND    TRAP    SHOOTING  -  by 

Charles  Askins 
YACHTSMAN'S   HANDBOOK.    THE- 
by  Herbert  L.  Stone 


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